James Coombs v The Information Commissioner

James Coombs v The Information Commissioner

The Tribunal found that s.43(2) FOIA was not engaged because there was no real and significant risk of prejudice to GLA's commercial interests from disclosure of the requested anonymised data. The information could be sufficiently anonymised by aggregating dates of birth to the nearest week, so s.40(2) FOIA was not engaged. The public interest in transparency and accountability outweighed any claimed exemption. The Decision Notice was not in accordance with the law.

Parties
Appellant: James Coombs; First Respondent: The Information Commissioner; Second Respondent: The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools
Jurisdiction
England and Wales
Judgment Date
10 August 2024
Procedural Posture
Information Rights Appeal / First Tier Tribunal (general Regulatory Chamber) Substantive Decision
Outcome
Appeal allowed
Legal Topics
Freedom of Information, Personal Data, Commercial Interests, Public Interest Test
Information Law Data Protection Administrative Law Freedom of Information Personal Data Commercial Interests Public Interest Test

Case Brief

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Parties

James Coombs

Appellant

The Information Commissioner

First Respondent

The Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools

Second Respondent

Procedural Posture

Information Rights Appeal / First Tier Tribunal (general Regulatory Chamber) Substantive Decision

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether the Consortium was entitled to rely on s.43(2) FOIA (commercial interests) to withhold requested information
  2. 2 Whether s.40(2) FOIA (personal data) was engaged by the requested disclosure
  3. 3 Whether the public interest in disclosure outweighed any exemption

Ratio Decidendi

The Tribunal found that s.43(2) FOIA was not engaged because there was no real and significant risk of prejudice to GLA's commercial interests from disclosure of the requested anonymised data. The information could be sufficiently anonymised by aggregating dates of birth to the nearest week, so s.40(2) FOIA was not engaged. The public interest in transparency and accountability outweighed any claimed exemption. The Decision Notice was not in accordance with the law.

Court Disposition

Appeal allowed

Orders

  • The Decision Notice with reference IC-82675-K0J4 is set aside.
  • The Consortium must disclose the anonymised data for tests taken in 2019 for entry to the grammar schools in the Consortium in September 2020, for each candidate: week of birth (aggregated), verbal reasoning raw score, verbal reasoning standardised, non-verbal reasoning raw score, non-verbal reasoning standardised,...