Department for Education

The complainant has requested various costs and fees paid associated with an apprenticeship campaign overseen by the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE provided some of the information but refused to provide the specific fees paid to a number of individuals as it considered they were third party personal data and therefore exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) and 41 of the FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the DfE was entitled to withhold the information under section 40(2), by way of section 40(3A)(a) of the FOIA. She has therefore not gone on to consider the application of section 41 of the FOIA and she requires no steps.