City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

1.    The complainant has requested data and information on the “Admissions Expressed’ spreadsheet for Reception 2025 including parental preferences for three Carlton Academy Trust schools. The City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (BMDC) initially relied on section 22 (information intended for future publication) but revised its position to rely on section 40(2) of FOIA (third party personal information) to withhold the information.
2.    The Commissioner’s decision is that BMDC has correctly relied on section 40(2) of FOIA to withhold some of the information, namely the direct identifiers which are personal data. The Commissioner finds, however, that not all of the information is personal data.
3.    The Commissioner requires BMDC to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation. 
• Disclose the redacted spreadsheets, containing no personal data, which it shared with the Commissioner, to the complainant.
4.    BMDC must take these steps within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of the Act and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.