James Coombs v Information Commissioner & Anor
[2023] UKFTT 264 (GRC)
James Coombs v The Information Commissioner
26 July 2024
[2024] UKFTT 712 (GRC)
First-tier Tribunal
Someone wanted test scores from grammar school entrance exams. The schools said releasing them would hurt the test company. The court disagreed, saying the public's right to know how the system works is more important, and the scores can be made anonymous enough to protect students' privacy.
Key Facts
- •Appeal against the Information Commissioner's Decision Notice (DN) regarding a FOIA request for anonymised 11+ exam data.
- •Requestor: James Coombs; Public Authority: Lincolnshire Consortium of Grammar Schools (acting for 18 schools); Test Provider: GL Assessment Limited (GLA).
- •Requested data: Anonymised data including week of birth, verbal and non-verbal reasoning scores (raw and standardised), and total age-weighted scores for 2019 11+ entrants.
- •Consortium initially refused based on s.43(2) FOIA (commercial interests), later adding s.40(2) FOIA (personal data).
- •Information Commissioner upheld the refusal, citing prejudice to GLA's commercial interests.
- •Appeal argued that the Commissioner misapplied previous Tribunal decisions and failed to properly assess public interest.
Legal Principles
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) exemptions: s.40(2) (personal data) and s.43(2) (commercial interests).
FOIA
Three-part test for s.43(2) FOIA (Hogan test): Identify applicable interests, nature of prejudice (real, actual, causal link), and likelihood of prejudice.
Christopher Martin Hogan and Oxford City Council v the Information Commissioner
Public interest test for s.43(2) FOIA: Balance between prejudice to commercial interests and public interest in disclosure.
FOIA
'Motivated intruder' test for identifying personal data: Assumes a reasonably competent individual with access to public information and resources.
Information Commissioner v Magherafelt District Council
Outcomes
Appeal Allowed.
The Tribunal found that s.43(2) FOIA was not engaged because the potential prejudice to GLA's commercial interests was not a significant and weighty chance, and the public interest in disclosure outweighed any potential harm.
Substituted Decision Notice issued.
The Consortium must disclose the requested information, with dates of birth aggregated to the nearest week, within 42 days.
s.40(2) FOIA not engaged.
The Tribunal found the information could be sufficiently anonymised to prevent identification of individuals, thus not constituting personal data under the Act.