Portadown College

This is the second decision notice referring to a request for copies of speeches made by the Chair of Governors and Principal at Portadown College (the College) on a particular speech day. In his first decision notice served under the case reference FS50573105, the Commissioner had disagreed with the College’s position that any information held by the Chair and Principal would not be subject to FOIA. He therefore ordered the College to issue a fresh response that reflected this finding. The College subsequently informed the complainant that the Principal and Chairman did have hard copies of their speeches but advised that this was exempt information under the ‘third party personal data’ (section 40(2)) exemption in FOIA. The College further claimed that it was not in any event obliged to comply with the request on the basis that the request was vexatious in accordance with section 14(1) of FOIA. It is this revised response which forms the focus of the present notice. The Commissioner’s decision is that the College misapplied section 14(1) of FOIA. He has additionally decided that section 40(2) of FOIA is not engaged except where the information is the personal data of individual students. Accordingly, with these exceptions, the Commissioner requires the College to disclose the requested information.