The Information Commissioner has ruled that Treasury handled a Freedom of Information request appropriately after a complainant challenged redactions applied to documents relating to funding for a loan to King William’s College.
The applicant had sought a copy of a Treasury paper submitted by the Department for Enterprise, along with accounting documentation.
Treasury released the material but withheld sections under section 25 (personal data), section 30 (economy and commercial interests) and section 20 (information accessible by other means) of the Freedom of Information Act.
Following an internal review, the applicant escalated the matter to the Information Commissioner, who examined the withheld information and the authority’s reasoning.
The Commissioner found Treasury had clearly identified each redaction, applied exemptions correctly and carried out a “well‑reasoned” public interest test for the qualified commercial‑interest exemption. The decision notice also noted that personal‑data redactions were minimal and valid.
However, the Commissioner advised Treasury to reconsider the administrative burden of redacting information already publicly available under section 20, saying that requiring requesters to cross‑reference external sources “risks creating unnecessary administrative work” and may not best support FOI transparency.
The Commissioner also highlighted delays in Treasury’s internal review, which took 33 working days, exceeding the expected 20‑day timeframe.
Overall, the complaint was not upheld, and Treasury is not required to take further action.
