Amenity Site

Summary

The requester asked for the lease agreement for the eastern district amenity site, and the Department of Infrastructure provided the document with redactions applied to the rental figure and signatures.

Key Facts

• The lease agreement was released but the rental figure was redacted to prevent unfair commercial advantage.
• Signatures were redacted as absolutely exempt personal information under data protection laws.
• The lease expires in 2022, making the financial information sensitive until any future tender process concludes.
• The Department determined that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the interest in full disclosure.
• The request was received on 10 October 2019 and the response was issued on 1 November 2019.

Data Disclosed

• 1000957
• 2019-10-10
• 2019-11-01
• 2022
• section 30(2)(b)
• section 25
• Article 5
• Article 6

Exemptions Cited

• Section 30(2)(b) - Commercial interests
• Section 25 - Personal information (Data Protection)

Original Request

I request the publication of the lease agreement for the eastern district amenity site.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Department of Infrastructure Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RF

Contact: FOI Response Team Telephone: (01624) 686785 Email: dpo-doi@gov.im

Our ref: 1000957/EH/MF 1 November 2019

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 10 October 2019 and which states:

"I request the publication of the lease agreement for the eastern district amenity site."

We have attached a copy of the lease which you requested.
Under section 30(2)(b) of the Act, the Act states that 'Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the public authority holding it).' The lease expires in 2022. Disclosure of financial information at this time could give an unfair advantage to some parties over others should the site go to expressions of interest or tender. For that reason, the Lease has been provided but the rental figure has been redacted. As section 30 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at large.

Factors in favour of disclosure • Transparency of Government. The lease is old thus weakening the arguments for withholding. • Factors in favour of withholding • Ensuring that no party is given an unfair advantage in the event of any call for Expressions of Interest, or Invitation to Tender. • Although the lease is old, it expires relatively soon in commercial terms; this makes the information more sensitive, at least until the commercial activity has concluded. • Once any future tender process is resolved, this information would be disclosed on request.

In taking these factors into account the Department of Infrastructure determined that the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption outweigh the factors in favour of disclosing the information. Please note that we have also redacted signatures because they are absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that: • The Department is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and • The Department is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Department of Infrastructure can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met. Please quote the reference number 1000957 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im.

Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi. I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

FOI Response Team