A weekly newspaper has successfully challenged a council’s refusal to release the outcomes of food hygiene inspections.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council had refused to disclose low-scoring food hygiene inspection reports, claiming they were exempt because they were being withheld as part of an investigation that could lead to enforcement action.

But the Basingstoke Gazette successfully argued that the exemptions the council had cited were misapplied, and that the public interest in transparency and public health outweighed maintaining any temporary secrecy.

The Gazette used ‘agentic’ AI tools to collate extensive case law relating to the disclosure of food hygiene reports and to advise on potential legal avenues to challenge the refusal.

Basingstoke council had interpreted a previous decision made in 2017, when the Information Commissioner’s Office upheld Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council refusal to disclose a food hygiene report.

It appeared to be using this to create a blanket precedent to withhold all low-rated food hygiene reports on the grounds that they might form part of a future enforcement action.

However, the Wigan case involved an ongoing investigation with identified potential criminal proceedings at the time of the request.

No such criminal proceedings had been issued by Basingstoke in the three years leading up to the Gazette’s FoI request.

Emily Roberts, pictured, head of news at the Gazette, said: “The council was withholding reports because of a theoretical possibility that it might initiate legal proceedings.

“We felt that a potential future enforcement simply couldn’t justify a blanket refusal of all low-scoring hygiene inspection reports.”

“There is a huge difference between a business given a low rating because of structural reasons and there being a rat infestation or out-of-date food served, and we believe the public has a right to know if local businesses are meeting hygiene requirements, and if not, what issues were found and what is being done about it.

“The exemption used by the council is intended to be used to protect active investigations or prosecutions, not to keep the public in the dark about health risks once routine inspections have happened.”

Following the newspaper’s challenge, the council carried out a review and has now removed the blanket ban on releasing all low scoring hygiene inspection reports and will instead consider them individually to see if any exemptions are applicable.

The Gazette has already been sent two low-scoring reports, including for a hotel which has repeatedly been graded as one out of five.

Jody Doherty-Cove, Head of AI at Newsquest, said: “This demonstrates how human reporters can work with an agentic AI to contest arbitrary decisions made by public bodies.

“AI identified possible routes to challenge the refusal by researching case law on this type of FOI refusal, and compiled relevant arguments by collating examples from councils that proactively publish full inspection reports on their websites or via disclosure logs.

“This formed a research pack that served as the starting point for a brilliant human-led endeavour to challenge the decision.

“The success at Newsquest paves the way for human reporters to become even more effective at holding authorities to account and securing the information to which the public is entitled.”