Mr. Y and Cork Institute of Technology

• Judge: Stephen Rafferty, Senior Investigator
• Judgment Date: 25 May 2015
• Case Outcome: The Senior Investigator found that CIT was justified in its decision to refuse access to the records sought by the applicant under section 15(1)(a) of the FOI Act. He affirmed the decision of CIT.
• Court: Information Commission
• Record Number: 150024
• Respondent: Cork Institute of Technology

Whether CIT was justified in its decision to refuse access to further records sought by the applicant concerning his contact with CIT's School of Music under section 15(1)(a) of the FOI Act on the basis that no further records exist or can be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain their whereabouts have been taken

Conducted in accordance with section 22(2) of the FOI Act by Stephen Rafferty, Senior Investigator, who is authorised by the Information Commissioner to conduct this review

Background

On 13 October 2014 the applicant submitted a request to CIT for all documents, video recordings, reports, internal correspondence and any other material that relate to his contact from 1 January 2014 with the Cork School of Music, a constituent college of CIT.

On 11 November 2014 CIT released 73 records to the applicant. The applicant sought an internal review of that decision on 25 November 2014 as he was not satisfied that all relevant records had been released. On 4 December 2014 CIT issued its internal review decision, releasing one additional record to the applicant, and refusing access to two other records under section 15(1)(a) of the FOI Act, on the basis that the records do not exist or cannot be found. On 18 January 2015 the applicant sought a review by this Office of CIT's decision.

I note that Mr Art Foley of this Office wrote to the applicant on 23 March 2015 with details of the searches carried out by CIT to locate records within the scope of his request, and of its responses to specific questions raised by the applicant in the course of this review. Mr Foley informed the applicant of his view that the decision of CIT to refuse to grant access to the records sought was justified, and he invited the applicant to make further comments if he disagreed with this view. Following a further exchange of correspondence, the applicant indicated, on 7 April 2015, that he wished for this Office to proceed to a full decision. I therefore consider that this review should now be brought to a close by issue of a formal, binding decision.

In conducting this review, I have had regard to correspondence between CIT and the applicant as set out above. I have also had regard to communications between this Office and the applicant, and to communications between this Office and CIT.

Scope of Review

This review is concerned solely with whether CIT was justified in refusing access to further records sought by the applicant relating to his contact with the School of Music under section 15(1)(a) of the Act, on the basis that the records do not exist or cannot be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain their whereabouts have been taken.

Preliminary Matters

At...