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Lawrence Archer and Dorset Council
On 11 August 2021, Mr Lawrence Archer lodged an application for assessed disclosure under the Right to Information Act 2009 (the Act) with the Dorset Council (Council). The request was for information relating to credit card statements used by the Mayor and General Manager and to a valuation of a parcel of Council land.
On 28 October 2021, Council released a decision to Mr Archer, refusing his application pursuant to s20(a) and (b) of the Act on the grounds it was a repeat and vexatious application. The position was affirmed on internal review released and Mr Archer applied for external review.
After receiving a preliminary view from the Ombudsman, Council reconsidered its position and issued a fresh decision, relying on s19 instead to assert that responding to the request would be an unreasonable diversion of Council’s resources from its other work. Mr Archer sought internal review and Council maintained its position. Mr Archer then sought external review.
The Ombudsman determined that Council was not entitled to refuse Mr Archer’s application for assessed disclosure pursuant to s19 of the Act.
Lawrence Archer and Dorset Council (PDF, 145.3 KB)
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Karl Willrath and Dorset Council
On 26 November 2019, Mr Willrath made an application for assessed disclosure under the Right to Information Act 2009 (the Act) to Dorset Council (Council). Mr Willrath sought information relating to a Code of Conduct complaint under the Local Government Act 1993, made by the General Manager of Council against a Councillor, relating to a series of emails.
The Code of Conduct Panel determination, which substantially set out the contents of the emails, has been publicly released. Mr Willrath sought the full content of the emails.
On 18 December 2019, Council released a decision to Mr Willrath, declining to release the information. In coming to its decision, Council relied only on the Local Government Act 1993 rather than the Act.
Upon request for internal review, Council upheld the initial decision on 5 February 2020. Mr Willrath then applied for external review. Pursuant to s47(1)(n), Council was requested to provide better reasons for its decision. Council issued a new decision on 20 June 2023 relying on ss30 and 35 to claim that the information was exempt under the Act.
The Ombudsman determined that:
- exemptions claimed pursuant to s30 were not made out;
- exemptions claimed pursuant to s35 were not made out; and
- some information was exempt under s36.
Karl Willrath and Dorset Council (PDF, 220.3 KB)
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Lawrence Archer and Dorset Council
In June 2018, former councillor Mr Lawrence Archer made an application to the Dorset Council for assessed disclosure. He sought a list of the monthly allowances and expenses incurred by individual elected members of Council, and copies of bank statements for Council credit cards used by the Mayor and General Manager.
Council refused to provide information regarding the councillors’ allowances and expenses, claiming that it was available to Mr Archer at a point in time (before he left Council) in what was known as Audit Panel papers. The Council refused to provide information requested about expenses outside of the Audit Papers, as it indicated that this was not able to be provided accurately. It also refused to provide the credit card statements pursuant to s20(b), as it stated that this was a vexatious request.
The Ombudsman determined that he had no jurisdiction to review Council’s decision to refuse allowance and expense information under s12(3)(c)(i). However, he found that the remainder of Mr Archer’s application should be reassessed in accordance with the provisions of the Act, as s20(b) did not apply and other information appeared to be able to be extracted and provided in accordance with s18(3).
Lawrence Archer and Dorset Council (PDF, 298.0 KB)