Thirty-two local authorities have been ordered to release information on pension payments after a landmark ruling under the Freedom of Information Act. The Information Commissioner's (ICO) Office has ordered the councils to disclose the amount of money paid to brokers by investment managers on behalf of employees pension funds after Information Commissioner Richard Thomas ruled there was a ‘strong public interest' in releasing the information. The main public interest argument for disclosing the information, according to the ICO, centres on the need for transparency among public bodies in their decisions when investing public money. Senior associate in Eversheds data protection group Elaine Fletcher said the decisions showed how difficult it can be in practice to successfully maintain a disclosure exemption and, in particular the commercial prejudice exemption. ‘Often cases only raise commercial prejudice arguments of one party, and interestingly in these cases, the ICO had to look at the interests of various parties, namely the local authorities, brokers, and investment managers in relation to the authorities' staff pension funds,' she explained. ‘It establishes the principle that the possible fall out from an authority otherwise having to disagree with its contractor's view on whether commercial prejudice would be likely to occur, is not necessarily a basis for withholding information and the authority has to consider the nature of the potential prejudice itself.' The local authorities ordered to release information on pension payments include Carmarthenshire CC, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Worcestershire CC, Sutton LBC and Kensington and Chelsea RLBC.
