Introduction
The North West Telegraph in Northern Ireland has been trying to uncover information about the arrangement between Derry City Council and Ryanair in connection with Derry Airport. The newspaper is making an issues because of a planned extension and large over-spend on a previous extension. A new story appears in the paper today.
FOIA
The newspaper made a request to the Council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for details of its arrangements with Ryanair. The Council declined to provide the information on the grounds of various exemptions. The newspaper complained to the Information Commissioner and in February 2006 the Commissioner released his Decision Notice requiring the Council to disclose information.
The Council has appealed to the Information Tribunal and the case is currently awaiting hearing.
Comment
The heads of agreement between Ryanair and the Council dates from 1999. This shows the "restrospective" effect of the Act. In other words, members of the public can request documents that were in existence before the Act came into force.
The lesson for both public bodies and their suppliers is that careful consideration is essential when dealing with sensitive issues.
From our dealings with clients on both sides of the public/private side of the equation, we think that:
- Suppliers need to be realistic about what is protectable and accept that there is a real openness culture in dealing with the public sector. This means that suppliers have to be alive to the risk of publication of commercially sensitive information.
- Public bodies need to understand where suppliers have genuine concerns and seek to address them. Without taking on board these concerns, there is a risk that certain suppliers will just not want to deal with the public sector and that's good for no-one.
Comments