Jayne’s Baby Bank: FOI Handling Raises Transparency Concerns

The request

On 5 August 2025 we asked Torfaen County Borough Council for any records about Jayne’s Baby Bank at 5 Crane Street / 1 Commercial Street, Pontypool: inspection reports, licences or permits, contracts, council fees and any other documents about the business. The council gave it the reference FOI 25/376.

The council consults her

On 22 August 2025 the council’s FOI team emailed Jayne’s Baby Bank to tell it about the request:

We intend to provide documentation from Trading Standards and Environmental Health and withhold Business Rates. if you have any comments, please let us know by 29th August.

Torfaen Council to Jayne’s Baby Bank, 22 August 2025

On 27 August, at 12:01, the council wrote to her again. It said it could not say who had made the request, and added: “For awareness, I have included the above attachments of the information that we are obliged to release under the Freedom of Information Act.” She was invited to comment by 29 August. She had the documents before we did.

Her post

Later that day, the Jayne’s Baby Bank Facebook page posted the papers with this message:

Info sherlock is trying to post next about us. Thank you to Torfean Council for supporting us and giving them the bare minimum. All of which the council are satisfied with and have allowed us to carry on as normal and carry on trading.

Her post, 27 August 2025 (archive)

The post shows she knew what the council was about to release, and she used that to frame it publicly before we, the requester, had received a thing.

What we were sent

The council replied on 2 September 2025, first at 16:49 and then with a replacement reply at 17:12. It released:

• 4 July 2025, Trading Standards: a sign claiming to be a charity, which the officer asked to be removed, and health and safety concerns about the amount of stock (our report on the note).
• 15 December 2023, first inspection: “Small charity shop. food bank. Distributes food supplied by the Trussell Trust to people with food bank vouchers.”
• 21 February 2024, an intelligence check after a baby formula product recall: no unsafe stock was found, and advice was given.
• Other records: a complaint about possible trade waste (3 October 2023), a land charges search (4 December 2023) and an allegation of trade waste dumping (3 September 2024).

The council said it held no licences, permits, contracts or council fee records for the business.

It withheld the business rates information under section 31(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act (law enforcement) and section 41 (information provided in confidence). To explain the harm, it pointed to the risk of fraudulent refund claims and to news stories about cannabis farms in disused commercial buildings. Those examples were general. None was about Jayne’s Baby Bank.

The internal review

At 19:21 on 2 September we asked for an internal review. We asked why the subject of the request had the material first, what was shared and when, whether a consultation log existed, and for a schedule of every document under section 17 of the Act.

The council’s Head of Legal Services replied on 8 September 2025. The review released the two emails sent to Jayne’s Baby Bank, and said the council follows the Cabinet Office Freedom of Information Code of Practice:

In consulting with the subject of the FOI request the Council is meeting the requirements of Part 3.

Torfaen Council, internal review, 8 September 2025

On the log, the answer was short: “No consultation log with third parties exists.” The only log is a general FOI log of each request’s progress. The council also gave a schedule of the records, confirming the business rates information was held and withheld.

The Trussell note

The 15 December 2023 note recorded that the shop “Distributes food supplied by the Trussell Trust to people with food bank vouchers”. We asked Trussell directly. Its Wales Network Lead replied on 4 September 2025:

I can confirm that Jayne’s Baby Bank is not a Trussell foodbank and has never been. It does not fundraise or distribute food that has been donated to Trussell on behalf of any Trussell foodbanks in Wales, neither does it fundraise or distribute emergency food on behalf of Trussell.

Trussell, 4 September 2025

This is why Freedom of Information matters. It lets a claim written down in an official note be checked against the body named in it. The full story, including her own posts about food bank vouchers, is in the Trussell Trust rejects Jayne’s Baby Bank claims.

Our concerns

• Advance access. Jayne’s Baby Bank had the documents before the requester, and the chance to comment on their release. It then published its own version first. That sequence shapes how the public first learns about the material.
• Public interest and private interests. Business rates information was withheld under sections 31(1)(a) and 41. At the same time, a note recording a Trussell link was later contradicted by Trussell itself. Where public claims may influence donors and service users, the public interest in transparency needs careful weighing.
• Different councils, different practice. Other councils do not always notify third parties in advance in similar cases. That leaves requesters with different experiences and outcomes depending on where they ask.
• No audit trail. No third-party consultation log was kept. Without a record of what was shared, what was said back and how it was weighed, it is harder to judge whether the consultation was fair and proportionate.

What next

We referred the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office on 8 September 2025. The questions are whether the consultation was proportionate, whether the exemptions on business rates were justified on the evidence, and how councils should handle claims in inspection notes that are later contradicted by the bodies named in them.

More of what the councils have released about her shops: food safety reports, the raffle licence FOI and the “Awaiting” registration.

Sources