Personal information
We are often asked to reveal the identity of complainants or informants. Receiving information confidentially can be relevant to a lot of our services, for example planning enforcement, tree preservation or noise nuisances.
Personal information is protected by the Data Protection Act 1998, which takes precedence over the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This means that, while we can disclose some information about the complaint, we must not release the identity of the complainant or informant unless we have their permission. Personal information is strongly protected by law and there are very few exceptional circumstances.
Additionally, some of our work - for example, in protecting the environment - depends on members of the public providing information. Revealing their identity would mean they are less likely to come forward and so this work would be much more difficult.
Some relevant web pages on personal information are: