Disclosure Log

10 March 2026

Further to your information request made under the above legislation, received on 2^nd March 2026, for information which may be held by the Devon & Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA), please be advised that the DTCCA does not hold any information falling within the scope of your request.

Accordingly, we confirm that the requested information is not held, in accordance with Regulation 12(4)(a) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

05 January 2026

Thank you for your request for information regarding Solar PV assets owned or controlled by the Devon & Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA).  We consider your enquiry to fall within the scope of ‘environmental information’ as defined under Section 2(1)(a)-(f) of the EIR, and have therefore processed your request in accordance with these Regulations.

The DTCCA can confirm that it does not own or control any Solar PV sites, nor has it procured any Solar PV related goods or services within the past three years.

Accordingly, the information you have requested is not held, in line with Section 12(4)(a) of the Regulations.

18 December 2025

Further to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, received on 5^th December 2025, regarding consultation on the development of the DTCCA Corporate Plan, please find attached a spreadsheet* listing all organisations engaged as part of the DTCCA 2025-35 Corporate Plan Consultation.

Individual names have not been included, as we consider this information exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Personal Information’.  Individual names constitute third-party personal data, which becomes identifiable when combined with the name of the organisation.

Disclosure would therefore be unfair and unlawful, contravening the first data protection principle, as those individuals would not reasonably expect their personal data to be made public in response to an FOI request.  Where individuals hold a sufficiently senior role and could reasonably expect disclosure, their job title has been included.

*Spreadsheet available upon request.

18 December 2025

1. The names of each group’s members and the organisation(s) to which they are attached in connection with their role in the group

The membership list for each Advisory Group, along with the associated organisation(s), is available within the a spreadsheet when requested.

1. The Terms of Reference of each Group

All Terms of Reference are set out within Section 5 of the DTCCA Constitution which is publicly available to view on our website.

1. Each Group’s Guiding Principles

Each Advisory Group is expected to abide by the Government’s Seven Principles of Public Life (commonly known as the Nolan Principles). There are no additional guiding principles held for any of the Advisory Groups.

1. All the recorded information you hold concerning each group’s meetings since its inception including, but not limited to agendas, attendance records, minutes, reports or other documents.”

In the interests of openness and transparency, the DTCCA is currently in the process of preparing all recorded information relating to its Advisory Group meetings, from inception to the present time, for publication on our website.

As this material is already intended for future publication, we are applying Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Information Intended for Future Publication’.

We recognise that Section 22 is a qualified exemption and therefore subject to the Public Interest Test.  While we acknowledge the public interest in openness, transparency and timely access to information held by public authorities, on balance we consider that the public interest in withholding the information at this stage outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Our reasons for this are as follows:-

• The information is currently being prepared for publication and will be made publicly available once finalised.
• Releasing the information prematurely could result in the disclosure of incomplete or draft material, which may be misleading.
• It is in the public interest for public authorities to manage their resources efficiently and avoid unnecessary duplication of work.

We can confirm that the information is scheduled for publication by 1^st April 2026 at the very latest.  Once published, it will be publicly available for review on the DTCCA website

Update 6 February 2026 – internal review

1. The response says it includes the requested Investment Advisory Group membership information but does not do so.

The Investment Advisory Group has not yet convened, as there has been no requirement for it to meet.  Membership will be drawn from the other advisory groups when required as set out in the approved Terms of Reference; however, no membership has yet been determined.  The information you have requested is, therefore, not held.

2. Information related to the meetings of the Housing Advisory Group, Climate Change and Net Zero Advisory Group, Transport Advisory Group is environmental information and so falls under the scope of EIR 2004 not FOIA 2000.

The DTCCA considers that the information requested constitutes environmental information and could have been processed under the Environmental Information Regulations 2005 (EIR) rather than the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We can confirm that the internal review has been conducted under the EIR.

3.  The Information Commissioner does not normally consider draft meetings documents such as agendas, attendance records, minutes and related reports to be exempt or excepted from disclosure under FOIA 2000 or EIR 2004.

 Regulation 12(4)(d) of the EIR permits a public authority to refuse a request where the information is still in the course of completion or is intended for future publication.  The information you have requested is currently undergoing internal work and quality assurance and is scheduled for publication on the Authority’s website at Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority once this process is complete.

We have considered the balance of public interest, and although we recognise that there is a public interest in early access to information, there is a stronger public interest in ensuring that the information supplied is accurate and complete and that public sector resources are not unnecessarily diverted.  This argument is further strengthened by the fact that DTCCA advisory groups are not decision-making bodies.  Final decisions are taken by the Authority’s Board, and those papers are already publicly available on the Authority’s website at Modern Gov – Devon and Torbay

We therefore consider that Regulation 12(4)(d) of the EIR applies in this instance.  The requested information will be readily available on the Authority’s website by 1^st April 2026 at the very latest.

4. The business advisory and skills and employment advisory groups each meet six times a year, the housing and investment advisory groups each meet four times a year and the climate change and net zero and transport advisory groups each meet three times a year. Two of these meeting cycles began in May 2025 and the rest in June or July 2025. As such it is not reasonable to refuse to disclose the requested information both as it should already have been published proactively by the authority and also because all six groups have been integral to a series of significant strategic public policy-making processes since their inception.

As outlined in our response to point (3) above, the requested information is still being prepared and will be published on the Authority’s website at by 1^st April 2026.  Final decisions taken by the Authority’s Board are, however, already publicly available, and has been since the inception of the Authority.

5. The public interest test performed in respect of this disclosure refusal does not consider the significance of the requested information or the extent to which its disclosure would enable public understanding, does not consider the likelihood and severity of any prejudice or harm that might or might not result from its disclosure and does not provide an account of the relative weights of the arguments for and against disclosure.

As noted above, the information is still in preparation and will be published by 1^st April 2026.  The public interest test has been carried out and the outcome communicated.  Final Board decisions are already publicly accessible on the Authority’s website.

6. The response also does not include any details of the procedures the CCA has in place for dealing with complaints about its handling of information requests, nor does it inform the requester of their right to complain to the ICO about its handling of information requests or include ICO contact information to enable them to do so.

We apologise that our original response did not make clear your right to request an internal review.  Internal reviews are undertaken upon request by the Authority’s Data Protection Officer (DPO), and requests can be made by replying to the response email.  We do, however, acknowledge your point and will ensure that future FOI and EIR responses clearly communicate this fact.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) encourages complainants to seek resolution with the public authority before escalating matters.  For this reason, we do not routinely direct requestors to the ICO at the initial response stage.  However, we always inform requestors of their right to approach the ICO if they remain dissatisfied following completion of the Authority’s internal review, and this is included as standard within our internal review responses.

7. As the CCA also does not appear to have adopted an approved publication scheme, I am also requesting that it confirms whether or not it intends to conduct an internal review of its handling of this information request within seven calendar days of the date of this email, such that any subsequent complaint to the ICO about its handling of this request might be submitted in a timely manner.

   The CCA has an approved FOI/EIR Publication Scheme, which is available on its website.  All FOI and EIR requests and responses are published in the Disclosure Log, accessible at: Disclosure Log – Devon and Torbay

We confirm that an internal review of the handling of this information request has been completed within seven days of receipt.  However, please note that both the legislation and ICO guidance require public authorities to complete such reviews within a maximum of 40 working days, rather than seven.

10 October 2025

1. Does the Devon and Torbay Combined Authority have a conservation team or a similar team that is typically consulted on planning applications; and, if so, what the organisational structure is in relation to this – i.e., teams, departments, and so on.
2. Details of training or qualifications prerequisite for any standard conservation officer.
3. If it is disclosable, if I could please have email addresses for any teams, as I would like to send a short survey related to my dissertation some time next summer for any officers who might be interested in completing it.

The Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA) does not have a conservation or similar team and is not regularly consulted on planning applications. This information is, therefore, not held.

The DTCCA does not employ conservation officers.  This information is, therefore, not held.

The DTCCA does not have an applicable contact.  This information is, therefore, not held.

17 September 2025

The Combined Authority holds a pre-meeting with the Chair and Vice Chair to discuss the agenda and logistics of the main Board Meeting. These meetings are non-decision-making, and we have held three such meetings ahead of the March, May, and July 2025 Board Meetings. Councillor Thomas, as Chair of the DTCCA, has attended these meetings, as has Councillor Brazil in his position as Vice Chair since his appointment in May 2025. Prior to Councillor Brazil’s appointment, the previous Leader of Devon County Council attended the meetings in his position as Vice-Chair. No minutes are taken, as the meetings are procedural in nature.

The Combined Authority is planning to hold more substantive pre-meetings with all members of the DTCCA Board to discuss the agenda and reports in greater detail ahead of future meetings.

Request for Information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004

Thank you for your request for information, received on 12 June 2025, which we have processed under the above legislation.

As the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority is not a Local Planning Authority (LPA), we can confirm that the requested information is not held, in accordance with the terms laid out within Section 12(4)(a) of the Regulations.

The LPA function usually falls under the remit of district, city and unitary councils, so you may wish to redirect your request accordingly.  Contact details for neighbouring authorities in Devon can be found by following the link provided.

Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

8th April 2025

1. Business Advisory Group – the names of the members and the organisations each represents

A membership list for the Business Advisory Group is available upon request

Additional request received for a membership list for the Skills and Employment Advisory Group, which is available upon request.

2. The number of members who are representative of Equality Act protected characteristics

The CCA acknowledges that Equal Opportunity (EO) forms were issued at the start of the recruitment process for monitoring purposes. However, not all participants chose to complete these forms, and some of those who did, opted not to answer certain questions. Consequently, the data collected is incomplete and does not provide an accurate representation of individuals who may possess protected characteristics. 

With specific reference to the protected characteristics data held by the CCA which constitutes special category data as defined by Article 9(1) of the UK GDPR, applicants who completed the EO forms were assured that their data would be treated with the utmost confidentiality. The CCA views this assurance as establishing a Duty of Confidentiality towards these individuals and therefore considers this information exempt from disclosure under Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Information provided in confidence’ 

Additionally, given the low number of individuals concerned, this information is also deemed exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000  – ‘Personal Information’ as the data could potentially be directly linked to the individuals concerned (particularly as they have been named in response to question 1), and its release could be considered ‘unfair’ under the terms of the first data protection principle at Chapter 2 – Article 5 (a) of the UK GDPR. 

However, we can advise that there is a general expectation that members of all Advisory Groups would be cognisant of the duties that arise from the Equality Act and given that Groups are supported by officers of the CCA and each Constituent Council, we are satisfied that those duties will be adhered to. 

3. The process by which invitations to apply for membership was publicised

A recruitment process was undertaken in 2024, the recruitment pack is available upon request.

4. The specific selection criteria used in making appointments

The specific criteria are contained within the Final Recruitment Pack provided in response to question 3.

5. An explanation of whether the provision “Leaders of the Constituent Councils will also have the flexibility to adjust the membership of the board” refers to individual members or the categories of membership

This provision relates to both categories of membership and individual members.

6. Information on (a) whether advisory group meetings can be attended by press and public and (b) whether agendas will be published (and if so, how) in advance of a meeting.

Advisory Group meetings are held in private and are designed to inform decision making of the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority Board. Advisory Groups are none decision making and there is no provision for attendance by the press and public.

7. Transport Advisory Group, the source of funding for the executive support to the group (this is not evident from the budget provided to the CCA board last week)

Officer support for the Transport Advisory Group will be provided from within the existing resources of the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority, Devon County Council and Torbay Council.