Information Commissioner's Office

Medical Research Council

7 July 2008, Education (Other)

The complainant requested from the MRC copies of independent reviewers’ reports and its Research Boards’ assessments of applications for funding for research into ME which had been refused between 2002 -2005. The MRC refused to disclose the information on the basis of the exemptions contained in sections 36, 40 and 41 of the Act. The Commissioner determined that it had correctly applied section 41 to the reviewers’ reports and the Research Boards’ assessments. He decided that, to the extent that any information in the Research Boards’ assessments was not exempt under section 41, it was exempt from disclosure under section 36. The MRC was not required to take any further action. Information Tribunal appeal number EA/2008/0059 has been dismissed.

FOI 41: Not upheld