ICO Decision Notice: Halton Council Mersey Gateway Bridges Information Request

ICO Decision Notices

Filed March 18th, 2026

Detected March 24th, 2026

Summary

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has upheld a complaint against Halton Council regarding a request for information about the Mersey Gateway bridges. The ICO found the Council failed to conduct a reasonable search for the requested information, violating the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). The Council must now conduct further searches and issue a new response.

View original document View source feed page

What changed

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a decision notice upholding a complaint against Halton Council concerning a request for information related to the Mersey Gateway bridges. The ICO determined that the Council failed to demonstrate it conducted a reasonable and proportionate search for the requested records, thus not complying with regulation 5(1) of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). The decision notice, dated March 18, 2026, cites the case identifier IC-379554-Y0N5.

The ICO requires Halton Council to undertake further searches to identify all information within the scope of the complainant's request and to provide a fresh response that adheres to the EIR requirements. This action necessitates immediate review by the Council's legal and compliance teams to ensure proper record-keeping and search protocols are in place to avoid future non-compliance and potential further enforcement.

What to do next

Conduct further searches for information related to the Mersey Gateway bridges request.
Issue a fresh response to the complainant that meets the requirements of the EIR.

Source document (simplified)

Halton Borough Council

Date 18 March 2026
Sector Local government
Decision(s) EIR 5(1): Upheld The complainant requested information relating to the Mersey Gateway bridges. Halton Borough Council (the Council) advised that the information was publicly available and provided various links to the information.

The Commissioner’s decision is that the Council has failed to demonstrate that it conducted a reasonable and proportionate search of its records to identify all information falling within the scope of the request. This means that it has not complied with regulation 5(1) of the EIR.

The Commissioner requires the Council to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation:
• Carry out further searches aimed at identifying all the information it holds falling within the scope of the request, and to issue the complainant with a fresh response which meets the requirements of the EIR.