In our district council environmental health department, we receive many sorts of complaints, eg about noise,which we normally try and deal with informally at first, resorting to legal action if necessary. Therefore we will often write in the first place to the person alleged to be causing the problem. This sometimes results in a demand to know the identitiy of the complainant. We normally resist this for data protection reasons and also on the grounds that we would normally not consider such a release in the public interest.

I have received a range of advice on this matter, and we need to be able to advise complainats clearly as to what the situation is with regards to their confoidentiality. However, I don't feel confident what to say! any advice please?