Information Commissioner's Office

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Information Commissioner's Office >> Council of the University of Southampton (Education) [2023] UKICO 187747 (30 March 2023)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKICO/2023/187747.html
Cite as: [2023] UKICO 187747

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Council of the University of Southampton

The complainant has requested an unredacted copy of the Broadlands Archive Agreement (the “new request”). The complainant had previously requested this information in 2017 (the “previous request”) and received a redacted copy of the agreement following a First Tier Tribunal decision. In response to the new request, the Council of the University of Southampton (the University) continued to rely on sections 40(2) and 41 of FOIA to withhold the redacted information. The Commissioner’s decision is that, on the balance of probabilities, the University failed to properly reconsider whether the exemptions relied on to redact information when responding to the previous request still applied to the redacted information when responding to the new request. Consequently, the Commissioner finds that the University has breached section 1 of FOIA. The Commissioner requires the University to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation: carry out a proper review of the redacted information and issue a fresh response to the request either disclosing the redacted information no longer covered by an exemption or provide an adequate refusal notice. The public authority must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

FOI 1: Complaint upheld

Decision notice: 187747