Alison,
One of the permissible exemptions to providing information under the Act is
information provided in confidence (see Part II, Section 41):
Information is exempt information if-
(a) it was obtained by the public authority from any other person
(including another public authority), and
(b) the disclosure of the information to the public (otherwise than under
this Act) by the public authority holding it would constitute a breach of
confidence actionable by that or any other person.
It would appear that the information obtained in the research that you
describe would fall within this category if you felt that the providers of
the information could take action against you due to the breach of
confidence. You rightly point out however, that the information might be
obtainable directly from the source through FOI anyway, though they may be
able to argue for an exclusion on other grounds.
Regards,
Eldin.
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-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Records Management mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alison Milsom
Sent: 17 May 2005 14:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FOI - Disclosure of information held by a third party
Hi,
This is my first post - I'm studying for a Masters in Records Management at
Aberystwyth whilst holding down a day job at teh Government Office for the
South East.
Could someone with a bit of detailed FOI knowledge provide any guidance on
the following?
We have commissioned one of the organisations which we fund to carry out
some research. Some (but not all) of the questionaires completed as part
of this research were done so 'in confidence' I don't have any detailed
info as to the definition of 'in confidence'.
Some of our other partners would doubtlessly find the information in the
questionnaires useful for their business planning and I would like to be
able to provide it to them. However my managers have got themselves into a
state over the 'in confidence' bit and have said that in order to avoid (!)
disclosing under FOI we should just give the information back to the
organisation who carried out the work.
I think this is wrong because :
a) We commissioned and paid for the research, so we own the information
anyway, and
b)We fund the organisation that carried out the work (public money) so
surely they would fall under FOI anyway (they're a registered charity)
Any help on or off list gratefully received!
Alison
Alison Milsom-Smith
Infrastructure Investment Manager
01483 885127
[log in to unmask]
Government Office for the South East
Bridge House
Walnut Tree Close
Guildford
Surrey
GU1 4GA
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