Summary: The complainant has requested information about a named inspector including a list of the schools that he inspected. The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) denied holding much of the requested information and refused to provide the list of schools inspected by the named individual under section 40, the exemption for personal information. Following an internal review the public authority also applied section 21, information accessible to applicant by other means, to some of the information that would form the list of schools inspected by the named individual. This was on the basis that a simple internet search would identify some of the schools that the named individual had inspected. The Commissioner-™s decision is that Ofsted were correct to withhold the information. The Commissioner finds that the full list of schools inspected, together with the dates inspected, is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) as it would be unfair to the named individual to release the information. Since the information is exempt under section 40(2) the Commissioner has not gone onto consider the application of section 21. It is not necessary for the public authority to take any steps in order to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Section of Act/EIR & Finding: FOI 40 - Complaint Not upheld