The Information Commissioner has ruled that Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council must disclose documents showing the commission payments made by investment managers to brokers on behalf of its employees' pension fund. These payments are directly deducted from the pension fund. The council refused to disclose the information, relying on the exemptions contained in section 41 (confidentiality) and section 43 (commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Commissioner ruled that the exemption in section 43 applied, but that the public interest in disclosing the information overrode the public interest in maintaining the exemption. The main public-interest argument for disclosing the information was based on the need for transparency and accountability of public bodies in their decisions when investing public money. However, the names of the brokers concerned and the market areas named in some of the documents were exempt from disclosure because their release could prejudice commercial interests. The Commissioner also ruled that the section 41 exemption was not applicable to most of the information, because the public interest defence inherent in the common law of confidence meant that a disclosure of this information would not be actionable in law. The Commissioner has made similar rulings against a total of 32 local authorities.