ICO The complainant, who worked for the Council, applied for two internal vacancies, unsuccessfully. He requested some information about the recruitment process, including copies of the application forms submitted by the other applicants, suitably redacted as necessary. The Council refused the request for the application forms, on the grounds that the exemption at section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act applied. The Commissioner decided that the exemption at section 40(2) applied in respect of some of the application form information, but that it did not justify withholding the information in its entirety. He considered that some information about applicants’ experience and qualifications could be provided in an anonymised form, without breaching their rights under the Data Protection Act 1998. The Commissioner directed the Council to provide this information to the complainant, either by redacting the application forms so that all information from which a candidate could be identified was removed or by supplying brief summaries of applicants’ experience and qualifications.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: FOI 10 – Complaint Upheld, FOI 17 – Complaint Upheld, FOI 40 – Complaint Partly Upheld
Citations:
[2009] UKICO FS50184888
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Information
Updated: 30 November 2022; Ref: scu.531920
