GovWire

The Planning Inspectorate has determined that the publication of spend data that does or is likely to identify those individuals supplying planning appeal decisions services, regardless of the way they supply the services, would pose a credible threat to their personal security. We used the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) as our frame of reference to make this judgement. More specifically that the publication of these spend data is exempt under FOI to protect the identities of companies and individuals providing services to HM Government, in particular where disclosure of either paying department or recipient would pose a personal security threat. The very real likelihood of a personal security threat is sufficient grounds for redacting spend data that we would ordinarily publish.