In a multi-part request, the complainant requested information from the General Teaching Council Northern Ireland (GTCNI) relating to its Publication Scheme, meetings, minutes of meetings, procedures and its handling of complaints/referrals about teachers. The complainant also requested further, related, information in a subsequent request. GTCNI ultimately provided some information but withheld the remainder citing sections 22 (information intended for future publication), 40(2) (personal information) and 42 (legal professional privilege) of FOIA. The Commissioner investigated its application of sections 22 and 40(2) to the information withheld by virtue of those exemptions. The Commissioner’s decision is that GTCNI correctly withheld information withheld by virtue of section 40(2) but that section 22 is not engaged. She also found procedural errors relating to GTCNI’s overall handling of the requests. The Commissioner requires GTCNI to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: issue a fresh response with regard to the information within the scope of part (2) of the request dated 13 May 2019, namely ‘ copies of all approved GTC committee minutes since April 2018 ‘; issue a response to the request for information dated 16 July 2019.
FOI 17: Complaint upheld FOI 10: Complaint upheld FOI 40: Complaint not upheld FOI 22: Complaint upheld FOI 19: Complaint upheld
Citations:
[2021] UKICO ic-45233
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 20 December 2022; Ref: scu.675087
