Information Commissioner's Office

Summary: The complainant made a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the -�Act-�) to the Student Loans Company (the -�Company-�) on 28 December 2006 for a document entitled -�CLASS Training Manual-�. The Company refused to provide this information to the complainant citing the exemption contained at section 43 of the Act relating to commercial interests. The Company-�s refusal to provide the information by virtue of the exemption contained at section 43 was investigated by the Information Commissioner-�s Office (ICO). A decision notice was issued on 30 July 2008 requiring the Company to disclose the requested information as it concluded that the exemption contained at section 43 had not been correctly engaged in that case. The Company supplied the requested information to the complainant in hard copy format. The complainant highlighted to the Company that at the time of making his request he specified that if held in electronic form the information should be supplied preferably in electronic format. The Company refused to provide the information in electronic format due to issues surrounding copyright and confidentiality. The complainant made a subsequent complaint to the ICO regarding the format in which the information had been provided to him. The Commissioner considers that section 11(1) of the Act has been breached as the complainant specified his preferred format at the time of making his request and the arguments put forward by the Company do not in the Commissioner-�s view indicate that it would not be reasonably practicable to provide the information in electronic format.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 11 - Complaint Upheld