Gloucestershire ordered to reveal commercial contract details

The information watchdog has rejected a council’s claim that disclosing confidential information from a contract with an energy supplier would undermine its bargaining position in future procurements.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has ruled that Gloucestershire County Council must reveal previously redacted details in its contract with Urbaser Balfour Beatty to design and build a waste incinerator.

But the council said it would appeal the verdict, saying that it has serious implications for councils across the UK.

Ray Theodoulou, deputy leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: “If companies that bid for councils services know that their pricing, or their methods of operating, are going to be revealed to their competitors, taxpayers are going to have a very significant cost to bear.”

The ICO was dealing with a complaint brought by a campaign group that the council had refused to reveal full details of the business plan and contract for the facility.

He said that, although the redacted information was confidential, the council had failed to prove that releasing it would cause harm to either the council or the contractor.

One of a number of arguments presented by the council was that companies would be likely to be discouraged from participating in council schemes if they felt it could result in the disclosure of information that might damage their business.

However, the commissioner said the council had “not specifically tied this argument to the legitimate economic interests of the council” as required.

“He also considers that private companies will still need, and want, to bid for lucrative public sector contracts regardless of disclosure under Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act.”

The commissioner also said that the council had failed to provide information to support its case in  a number of other areas.

Theodoulou said: “It is our intention to provide that additional information to the Information Tribunal, and to ask them to look again at this independently.

“This is an important point, with serious consequences for all councils in Britain, which needs further independent examination.”

Resident, Cos Ttofa, whose FOI request sparked the investigation, said: “The ICO had previously ruled that other councils had to disclose their incinerator contract details and GCC knew this.

“These precedents meant it was almost inevitable that the council would be compelled to release the information, and be shown to have been wrongfully and unjustifiably withholding it from the public for years. The public have every right to know how vast amounts of their money is planned to be spent.”