The complainant has requested a copy of the evidence that was considered by the Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) as part of their decision to allow a particular academy to reduce the number of pupils it admitted. The Department for Education (DfE) has refused to provide some of the requested information under section 36 – prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs. The Information Commissioner’s decision is that section 36(2)(b)(i) is engaged in respect of all the withheld information. However the public interest favours disclosing a limited amount of that information. Section 36(2)(c) has also been applied to those same pieces of, information. However the Information Commissioner finds that that exemption is not engaged. Finally the Information Commissioner finds that the DfE breached section 10 by failing to respond to the request within twenty working days of receipt. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information that is not covered by either section 36(2)(b)(i) or 36(2)(c). This is identified in the confidential annex which has been provided to the DfE only.
FOI 36: Complaint partly upheld FOI 10: Complaint upheld
Citations:
[2019] UKICO fs50799018
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 18 November 2022; Ref: scu.638740