The complainant made a freedom of information request to Brooklands Primary School for anonymized statistical information on the progress of pupils at the School in reading. The School disclosed most of the information requested but provided a ‘below 3’ response where the number of pupils requested was 0, 1, or 2 so as to reduce the risk of individual pupils being identified. The School relied on the section 40(2) (personal information) exemption and argued that disclosure would contravene the first data protection principle. The Commissioner has investigated the complaint and found that most of the redacted information does not amount to personal data. The Commissioner did find that some information was personal data and that disclosure would contravene the first data protection principle and that therefore this information was exempt under section 40(2) of FOIA. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose to the complainant, in unredacted form, the information it holds falling within the scope of the request of 7 January 2013 with the following exceptions – for table 1, the School may combine the information for ‘number of pupils at 2a and below’ for year 4 and the information for years 1′ 5 from table 6 shall not be disclosed.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: FOI 40 – Complaint Partly Upheld
Citations:
[2013] UKICO FS50485593
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 07 August 2022; Ref: scu.528847
