Dear Mr. Harris,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 4th March, 2013 and is being dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We are therefore required to provide you with a response within 20 working days, which will be on or before 1st April, 2013.

If we require any clarification or further details, we will contact you as soon as possible - if this is the case, then the timescale for response specified above may be subject to change.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me, remembering to quote the reference number provided above in any communications.

Yours sincerely
John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council
Mewnol/Internal: 4127
Allanol/External: 01267 224127

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Dear Mr Harris,

I refer to your request for information, which was received on 4th March, 2013 and has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

"Please provide me copies of invoices the authority has issued to those organisations and/or companies which have placed an advertisement in edition 11 of Carmarthenshire News."

In response, please find attached the requested information.

Please note that we have removed the name and home address of a private individual on the invoice to Carmarthenshire Youth Opera.

Under Section 40 (2) of the FOIA, a public authority may refuse to release personal data if its disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles set out in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

The legal definition of personal information contained in the DPA is information that relates to a living individual, who can be identified from the information, or from other information held or likely to come into the possession of the data controller (in this case the Council). This would include names, addresses as well as a very wide range of information about a person.

The first data protection principle states:

“1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless—
(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and
b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.”

The term processing includes disclosure to third parties, which must therefore be fair, lawful and meet one of the relevant conditions set out in Schedule 2 of the DPA. If the information is classed as sensitive personal data, an additional condition found in Schedule 3 of the DPA must also be met before it can be disclosed.

Disclosure of information under the FOIA has the effect of placing it in the public domain. I must therefore disregard who has asked for the information and am required to consider whether it would breach the first data protection principle by releasing it to the public at large.

In deciding whether it is fair to disclose the information, I have considered the following factors.

a) Possible consequences of disclosure

In assessing fairness, I have to consider the likely consequences of disclosure in each particular case. Personal information should not be used in ways that have unjustified adverse effects on the individuals concerned. In this case, I believe the individual would be likely to suffer some distress, arising from an intrusion of privacy, should disclosure take place.

b) Reasonable expectations

In considering whether a disclosure of personal information is fair it is important to take into account whether disclosure would be within the reasonable expectations of the individual.

I am satisfied in this case that the person in question would fully expect that their information would be kept confidential.

c) Balancing the rights of the data subject and the legitimate (public) interests in disclosure

Despite the reasonable expectations of the individual and the fact that distress may result from disclosure, there may be cases where there is an overriding public interest in doing so. However, in this case, I believe that there is no public interest which requires disclosure.

As such, I consider that disclosing the information would be unfair and it is my view that the release of the information being withheld would breach the first data protection principle. Section 40 (2) of the FOIA provides an absolute exemption where this is the case.

As I am refusing to provide the requested information, please therefore consider this email as a formal notice of refusal under Section 17 of the FOIA.

If you are unhappy with the way in which your request has been handled, you can request a review by writing to:

The Head of Administration & Law
Carmarthenshire County Council
County Hall
Carmarthen
SA31 1JP

Email: [email address]

If you remain unhappy with the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

John Tillman
Swyddog Gwybodaeth a Diogelu Data
Adran y Prif Weithredwr
Cyngor Sir Gaerfyrddin

Information & Data Protection Officer
Chief Executive's Department
Carmarthenshire County Council

Mewnol/Internal: 4127
Allanol/External: 01267 224127

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[ WhatDoTheyKnow note: The above text was badly encoded, and has had strange characters removed. ]