Freedom of information response

1. The Council’s approach to Biodiversity Net Gain is being advised by the Council’s external ecology advisor with implementation currently managed by the Place & Design Manager. Specific inquiries relating to landowner and developer s106 agreements securing BNG should be directed to the Development Management service, at DevControl@thurrock.gov.uk.

2. The Council does not currently have a template for an offsite biodiversity net gain section 106 agreement. We would advise that any applicant wishing to pursue an offsite biodiversity net gain site section 106 agreement contact the Development Management service directly in the first instance, at DevControl@thurrock.gov.uk

We are unable to provide the contact details for any staff members under the director level under S40.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide in full the information you have requested.  We do hold the information but an absolute exemption applies.  Personal Information (Section 40,2) 

Personal data of any other person (third party data) is exempt under section 40(2) if disclosure would breach one of the data protection principles. This aspect of Section 40 is an Absolute Exemption and is therefore not subject to the Public Interest Test. 

The names of officers working for the Council is personal data specific to them. It is therefore subject to the provisions of the Data Protection Act. Information can be withheld if its disclosure would be likely to breach one or more of the Principles of the Data Protection Act. There is no prior expectation on the part of team Managers (or other officers working below the level of Director) that their names and job titles / positions would be published into the wider public domain under FOI. A disclosure made under FOI constitutes a publication to the world at large. We believe that to disclose this would be likely to breach the first Principle of the Data Protection Act by unfairly contravening their right to privacy and confidentiality in the work place.  

However, in the interests of transparency we are able to share details relating to senior officers (Director  level and above). For these officers, there is already a greater expectation of openness about their role given their level of accountability for service provision and budgetary decision making.  

For your information please see the following link which outlines staff details of Director and above: https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/chief-executive-directors-and-services