Department for Transport v (1) The Information Commissioner & (2) Dr Minh Alexander: [2021] UKUT 327 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Jones on 10 May 2021.
Read the full decision in .
Judicial Summary
The appeal concerns the disclosure, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”), of staff survey reports addressing very small units within the civil service. The requested reports relate to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (“AAIB”), a unit within the Department for Transport (‘the Appellant’ of ‘DfT’) and, within the AAIB, those pertaining to the “Investigators” unit and the “Administration” unit. The staff surveys in question were part of the Civil Service People Survey which is described as an important tool in the management of the Civil Service.
The FTT upheld the decision of the Information Commissioner (‘the First Respondent’ or ‘Commissioner’) that the Appellant must disclose information requested by the Second Respondent, Dr Alexander, relating to staff surveys conducted in the AAIB between 2010 and 2018.
The FTT’s decision upheld the decision of the Commissioner and agreed that no part of the requested information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of FOIA (personal data). This is disputed by the Appellant in Grounds 1 and 2 of its grounds of appeal.
The FTT also agreed with the Commissioner that the requested information is not exempt from disclosure under section 36(2)(c) of FOIA (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs). This is disputed by the Appellant in Ground 4 of its grounds of appeal.
The Upper Tribunal dismissed Grounds 1 and 2 but allowed the appeal on Ground 4 as it was satisfied that the FTT failed to take account of and/or give appropriate weight to the relevant evidence on behalf of the Appellant as to the impact of disclosure of the requested reports and failed to give sufficient reasons for rejecting the evidence that there were possible chilling effects of disclosure.
The case was remitted to a freshly constituted panel of the FTT to decide whether the section 36 FOIA exemption applies.