138 annual report 2011 could (also) be considered. The Ombudsman asked to be kept informed of the result of the local authority’s considerations. (Case No. 2010-3782-0600) 20-10. Name of informer covered by duty to take notes. Exemption of name from access A local authority received information from a citizen about illegal spreading of liquid animal manure on a farm. Shortly afterwards, the local authority carried out an unannounced inspection of the farm. The local authority refused to give the farmer access to the name of the informer on the grounds that the informer had claimed to have been threatened by the farmer before. The Regional State Administration at first referred the case back to the local authority but later upheld the local authority’s refusal to give access. The Ombudsman stated that the local authority should have noted down and filed the name of the informer on the case file. The local authority could not omit noting down the name of the informer on the grounds that it wished to avoid disclosure of the name to the farmer. Depending on the circumstances, an authority can exempt from access the names of informers and others who have contributed with information about a case. On the available basis, the Ombudsman did not find that the local authority and the Regional State Administration had sufficient grounds for refusing the farmer access. The Ombudsman recommended that the local authority reopen the case. (Case No. 2010-5270-1011) 21-1. L anguage used by local authority A man complained to the Ombudsman about a local authority’s processing of several requests for access to documents in its cases about a local property. The man’s complaint concerned, among other things, the way in which the local authority replied to his requests for access. The Ombudsman did not find that he had grounds for criticising the local authority’s processing of the man’s requests for access, but he did find that the language used in the local authority’s replies to the requests overstepped the bounds of good administrative practice.