General Dental Council

The complainant has requested information on a tendering exercise conducted by the General Dental Council in 2014 for in-guise investigations. The GDC provided some information, stated some information was not held, cited section 12 in relation to parts of the request that would require further examination to determine if information was held, and withheld the names of bidders under section 43(2) of the FOIA. The Commissioner’s decision is that the GDC has correctly cited section 12(1) of the FOIA in relation to parts 3, 4 and 5 of the request. In relation to section 43(2) of the FOIA the Commissioner finds the exemption is not engaged. The Commissioner requires the public authority to disclose the information in the weighting model that has been withheld under section 43(2) i.e. the names of the bidders.