Information Commissioner's Office

Student Loans Company Ltd

3 November 2008, Education (Other)

The complainant made a request to the Student Loans Company Ltd (the “SLC”) for a copy of the “customer service guide” for employees of the Smith Lawson & Company collection team. The complainant qualified the initial request by stating that it was a request for any documents, guides or customer service policies that were used by these staff. The SLC initially informed the complainant that it did not hold any information which fell under the scope of his request. After the complainant sought an internal review the SLC confirmed that it did hold some material that fell within the scope of his request, but withheld this information under section 43(2). After investigating this complaint the Commissioner decided that the exemption was not engaged, and as such the requested information should be disclosed. Therefore the Commissioner found that the SLC had acted in breach of section 1(1)(b) in that it had wrongly relied upon section 43(2) to withhold this information. The Commissioner also found that the SLC had not met the requirements of section 10(1). Information Tribunal appeal EA/2008/0092 part allowed.

FOI 43: Upheld FOI 10: Upheld