Wiles and Building Services Authority

Application number:
1999 S0103
Decision date:
Friday, Mar 31, 2000

Wiles and Building Services Authority
 (1999 S0103, 31 March 2000) 

The applicant sought review of the respondent's decision to refuse him access to documents relating to an investigation conducted by the respondent into various complaints made by the applicant. 

The Information Commissioner decided that some of the documents in issue were subject to legal professional privilege, and therefore exempt under s.43(1) of the FOI Act.  Some of the matter in issue comprised bank statements of third parties, and the Information Commissioner found that those documents were exempt from disclosure under s.44(1). 

In relation to correspondence passing between third parties and the respondent in connection with the applicant's complaints, the Information Commissioner decided that the bulk of that correspondence was not exempt matter under s.46(l) because it was directly relevant to the applicant's allegations.  The Information Commissioner considered that the third parties should reasonably have expected that the respondent would need, as a matter of procedural fairness, to disclose to the applicant, details of its investigation and the relevant information it had gathered in response to the applicant's complaints, in order to give the applicant a proper account of the manner in which it had carried out its statutory function to investigate his complaints.