THE council fully accepts it made "procedural failings" in the way it dealt with a resident's Freedom of Information request.

The Information Commissioner found four procedural breaches of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 after Rajesh Katkoria, of Galahad Road, Edmonton, asked to know why the council's former director of housing was suspended.

Council spokesman Andrew Keeling said: "The commissioner did find procedural failings on the part of the council in dealing with the correspondence from the FOI request, which the council fully accepts.

"The council is committed to being as transparent, open and accountable as possible, however, it is not at liberty to disclose any information about a former member of staff's suspension due the Data Protection Act, which the Information Commissioner fully endorses."

Mr Katkoria had put an FOI request to the council on July 13, 2006, but said he had been ignored.

It was only after the commissioner got involved two years later that Mr Katkoria got his response.

He was told Mr Graham had been made redundant and his departure was covered by a mutual confidentiality agreement, meaning both he and the council were legally bound to keep quiet on the reasons why he left.

Gerald Tracey, the assistant commissioner, ruled Enfield Council used the law correctly but identified four breaches of the law.

The four breaches were: failing to reply within 20 working days, failing to state whether it held the information requested, failing to state the information was exempt from disclosure and failing to giving a specific legal reason why it was exempt.

Mr Tracey has decided no further steps will be taken.