The Governing Body of the University of Sheffield

The complainant has requested all communications and documents relating to the negotiation of a contract with Cambridge Analytica/Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) in 2016-17. The University denied holding any information. However in response to a later request, from a different applicant, the University did locate a short email chain that was relevant to the request. It did not however provide that information to the complainant. The complainant has argued that the University is likely to hold further information in addition to that short email chain. The Commissioner’s decision is that by failing to provide the complainant with short email chain, the University breached section 1(1)(b) and section 10(1) of the FOIA. The Commissioner is however satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that the University does not hold any further information. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose a copy of the email chain. When doing so the University is entitled to remove the names and personal contact details of the authors and recipients.