The complainant has requested a document and correspondence associated with Toby Young’s appointment to the Board of the Office for Students. The Department for Education (DfE) has released some information and is withholding other information under sections 36(2)(b)(i), 36(2)(c) (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) and section 40(2)(third person personal data). The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: The ‘merit document’ engages the exemptions under section 36(2)(b)(i) and section 36(2)(c) but the public interest favours its release. DfE is entitled to withhold the information redacted from email correspondence it released under section 40(2), but the merit document does not engage section 40(2). The Commissioner requires DfE to take the following step to ensure compliance with the legislation: Release the merit document identified by the department as falling within the scope of the request. The Commissioner wishes to clarify that the DfE did in fact respond to all the Commissioner’s questions during her investigation of the case contrary to what is stated in paragraph 14 of the DN.
FOI 36: Complaint upheld FOI 40: Complaint partly upheld
Citations:
[2019] UKICO fs50799027
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 18 November 2022; Ref: scu.638675