Department for Education

The complainant has requested details of the local authorities that applied to transfer funds from their schools block funding and the application each one submitted. The above public authority provided most of the information, but withheld the applications themselves, relying on section 36 of FOIA (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) in order to do so. The Commissioner’s decision is that only some of the information engages section 36 and, where this is the case, the public interest favours disclosure. The Commissioner requires the public authority to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. Disclose a copy of each submission along with any supporting documents. The public authority should make appropriate redactions to protect personal information.