Veolia Es Nottinghamshire Ltd v Nottinghamshire County Council & Ors

Section 15(1) of the Audit Commission Act 1998 gives interested persons access to the accounts of an audited local authority and to books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating to them. “Accounts” means the authority’s continuing record of financial activity and financial position, not merely selected lines in the published statement of accounts or the underlying accounting records. The published statement of accounts, including its explanatory foreword and notes, summarises and evidences those accounts. “Relating to” requires a factual connection between the document and the accounts; the connection need not appear from the document or accounts alone. Commercial confidentiality does not qualify the statutory right of access, subject to the statutory protection for personal information.

Veolia held a waste-management PFI contract with Nottinghamshire County Council. A local elector, Mr Dowen, sought to inspect and copy the contract schedules, monthly invoices and supporting schedules during the statutory audit period. The Council concluded that the documents fell within section 15(1) of the Audit Commission Act 1998 and proposed to disclose them.

Veolia brought proceedings seeking to prevent disclosure, relying principally on the confidential and commercially valuable nature of the material. The central issues were the meaning of “the accounts to be audited”, the connection required by the expression “relating to”, and whether commercial confidentiality could restrict the statutory inspection right.

1. Claim dismissed. Mr Dowen was entitled to inspect and copy the disputed documents.
2. “Accounts” in section 15(1) means the Council’s continuing record of financial activity and its financial position, rather than only particular lines in the Income and Expenditure Account. The accounting records are broader still, because they include the accounts and supporting materials.
3. The statement of accounts is a summary of the accounts. Its explanatory foreword and notes form part of that summary and evidence entries in the accounts. A document relating to an item or note anywhere in the statement therefore relates to the accounts to be audited.
4. “Relating to” requires an enquiry into the factual connection between the specified document and the accounts. It does not require the connection to be apparent from the document itself or from the accounts without reference to other material. The Contract and invoices were factually connected with the Council’s accounts because payments under the Contract were financial items and the Contract was identified in the explanatory foreword and Note 29.
5. The statutory scheme supports meaningful public scrutiny of legality, contractual entitlement and value for money. The inspection right is wider than access confined to documents expressly named in a line of account, although it is not a general free-standing information right.
6. Commercial confidentiality and contractual confidentiality do not prevent disclosure where section 15(1) applies. Parliament expressly protected personal information in section 15(3), but did not create a corresponding commercial-confidentiality exception. Legal professional privilege would require clear statutory language before being displaced.

First-instance judicial review proceedings in the Administrative Court. No appeal or earlier decision is stated in the judgment.