Issue 8

 

 Welcome to 

 

It's Official. Requesting information from UoB is vexatious.

 

Information Commissioner rules that forming a campaign group to highlight practices UoB prefers to keep secret is vexatious. 

 

 Below is the relevant extract from the ICO report.

 Conclusion
48. In light of the evidence presented, the Commissioner is satisfied that the
University is entitled to consider the request in the context of the
campaign initiated by CEUB.
49. When taken into account the number of other similar requests received
by the University, the Commissioner accepts that this has imposed a
significant and disproportionate burden on the University in terms of the
expense and distraction which was caused.
50. The Commissioner acknowledges that the complainant may have a
genuine interest in obtaining the information requested and may not
have intended to cause inconvenience to the University. However, taken
in the context of the other requests, the Commissioner is satisfied that
CEUB, which gave rise to these requests, has caused disruption and
annoyance to the University and inevitably had the effect of harassing
its staff.
51. The Commissioner has therefore determined that the University is
entitled to characterise these requests as manifestly unreasonable and
has consequently applied section 14(1) of the FOIA to the request. The
Commissioner has not considered the application of sections 21 and 40
in this case.

Six steps to secrecy

1. You ask for information because you suspect something untoward has been going on.
2. You get no response.
3. A campaign is organised to hold the UoB publically to account.
4. Individuals refer the University's refusal to divulge the information they have asked for to the information commissioner.
5. The Information Commission concludes that, even though it ignored the individual requests, the University is right to consider itself the victim of a vexatious campaign, despite the fact that none of the requests emanated from the campaign.
6. The Information Commission does not consider that the the University may be holding back information to protect itself from public scrutiny. 

Presumably if everyone had just kept quiet all would have been revealed!