Information Commissioner's Office

Office for Standards in Education

1 December 2008, Education (College)

Following his request for information relating to child day care settings in England, the complainant requested the names of the Person in Charge for each setting. Ofsted refused to supply the requested information on the basis that it constituted personal information and therefore section 40(2) of the Act applied. Following its internal review Ofsted argued that the information was not collated and would require it to undertake new work in order to create it. Ofsted therefore concluded that the information was not held. The Commissioner has determined that information relevant to the request is held on Ofsted’s RSA database and that Ofsted breached section 1(1)(a) of the Act. The Commissioner has considered the arguments advanced by Ofsted in support of the application of section 40(2). He has determined that the provision of the requested information would not breach either the first or second data protection principle and therefore section 40(2) was inappropriately cited. Consequently Ofsted have breached section 1(1)(b) of the Act.

FOI 1: Upheld FOI 40: Upheld