Civil court cases/claims against BHCC

On the date that you acknowledge this e-mail how many civil court cases are currently being pursued against your authority where a statement of claim has been lodged with the court?’

On the 13th of January 2015 there were 18 such cases.

2. In relation to each of these cases please provide me with the name of the court the case has been lodged with and any reference number that the court has provided you with to identify the case.

Although this information is held by the Council we are not prepared to disclose it as we consider that it is exempt from disclosure under Section 32(1)(a) and (b) of the FOIA which provides that “Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it is held only by virtue of being contained in-
(a) any document filed with, or otherwise placed in the custody of, a court for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter,
(b) any document served upon, or by, a public authority for the purposes of proceedings in a particular cause or matter”

This exemption applies because in each of the cases referred to the name of the court and the case reference number is only held by the Council by virtue of it being contained in documents as described as sections 32(1)(a) or (b) of the Act.

The exemption at section 32 of the FOIA is an absolute exemption and we have not therefore gone on to consider the public interest test.