Mr Y and the Defence Forces

• Judge: Stephen Rafferty, Senior Investigator
• Judgment Date: 20 April 2015
• Case Outcome: The Senior Investigator found that the Defence Forces was justified in refusing access to the information sought under section 28(1) of the FOI Act. He affirmed the decision of the Defence Forces.
• Court: Information Commission
• Record Number: 150005
• Respondent: Defence Forces

Whether the Defence Forces was justified in refusing access to details of the marks awarded to candidates in a specified promotion competition under section 28(1) of the FOI Act on the basis that the information sought comprises personal information relating to the candidates

Conducted in accordance with section 34(2) of the FOI Act by Stephen Rafferty, Senior Investigator, who is authorised by the Information Commissioner to conduct this review

Background

On 28 August 2014, the applicant sought from the Defence Forces details of the marks awarded to all candidates in respect of an Air Corps promotion competition held in December 2012, with the names of the candidates for promotion redacted.

In its decision dated 29 October 2014, the Defence Forces refused access to six records, on the basis that they contained personal information of third parties, and released one record to the applicant, the contents of which related to the applicant. The applicant sought an internal review of this decision on 21 November 2014. The initial decision of the Defence Forces to refuse access to six records under section 28(1) of the FOI Act was upheld in the internal review decision of 15 December 2014. On 6 January 2015, the applicant applied to this Office for a review of the Defence Force's decision.

In conducting this review I have had regard to correspondence between the applicant and the Defence Forces, to correspondence between the Defence Forces and this Office, to correspondence between the applicant and this Office, and to the contents of the records at issue.

In the interests of clarity, I should point out that this review was carried out under the provisions of the FOI Acts 1997-2003 notwithstanding the fact that the FOI Act 2014 has now been enacted. The transitional provisions in section 55 of the 2014 Act provide that any action commenced under the 1997 Act but not completed before the commencement of the 2014 Act shall continue to be performed and shall be completed as if the 1997 Act had not been repealed.

Scope of Review

The scope of this review is concerned solely with the question of whether the Defence Forces was justified in refusing access to details of the marks awarded to all other candidates in the relevant promotion competition on the basis that the information sought is exempt from release under section 28(1) of the Act.

Analysis and Findings

The seven records identified as coming with the scope of the applicant's request comprise a Promotion Board Assessment Report and a File Assessment Marking Table for seven candidates, including the applicant. Marks were awarded under a number of...