Council of University of London

The complainant has requested the research information referred to in the Black Lives Matter message from the Dean of the Faculty of Brain Science in June 2020. The Council of University College London (UCL) initially stated that it did not hold the requested information. However, following the intervention of the Commissioner, UCL confirmed that it did hold information relevant to the request, but was withholding it under the exemption provided by section 22(A) of the FOIA (research). The Commissioner’s decision is that UCL has not complied with its obligations under section 1(1), section 10(1), section 16(1) or section 17(1) of the FOIA. The Commissioner has not gone on to consider UCL’s reliance on section 22(A) in this decision, as this does not form part of the complainant’s complaint. The Commissioner does not require UCL to take any steps as a result of this decision notice. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2021/0073 under appeal.