University of Bristol (Decision Notice): ICO 20 Apr 2011

The complainant requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the ‘Act’) the workplace email addresses of all of the University’s staff. The University confirmed that it held the requested recorded information, but believed that it was exempt. It applied section 21(1) [information accessible by other means] in its refusal notice and upheld this position at internal review. The case was referred to the Commissioner, where the complainant specifically asked the Commissioner to consider the operation of section 11(1) [means by which communication to be made] in relation to his request. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation, the University continued to apply section 21(1) to all the workplace email addresses except for three. Two fell outside the scope of the request, and the third was an omission. The University released the third email address to the complainant. The Commissioner has carefully considered this case. He has found that section 21 has been appropriately applied by the University and that its interpretation of section 11(1) was correct. However, he has found that it breached section 10(1) in failing to disclose the one non-exempt email address to the complainant. As this has now been disclosed, he requires no remedial steps to be taken. Information Tribunal appeal number EA/2011/0120 dismissed.
Section of Act/EIR and Finding: FOI 10 – Complaint Not upheld, FOI 11 – Complaint Not upheld, FOI 21 – Complaint Not upheld

Citations:

[2011] UKICO FS50310776

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Information

Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.530431