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Are the legitimate interests overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject?
Are the legitimate interests overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject?
We have to consider the impact of revealing that any complaint has, or has not, been brought against the headteacher and referred to the School’s governing body. By confirming or denying whether the information is held the School will not be revealing any information about the nature of such complaint/s. It is information about the headteacher’s professional life in a senior, publicly paid position. Given the particular background to this appeal, including the information already in the public domain, we do not accept that the headteacher would have a reasonable expectation that this limited information would be kept private. We agree with the Commissioner that any additional intrusion into the headteacher’s privacy by the disclosure of those particular facts is minimal.
In considering the damage or distress that is likely to flow from confirmation or denial that the information is held, the School asks us to take account of an underlying campaign of harassment, but there is nothing before us to support a finding that confirming or denying that the information is held would be likely to cause further harassment.
We take account of the fact that the headteacher has not consented to the disclosure (i.e. a confirmation or denial being given by the School). We accept that he has suffered distress, in particular as a result of the conduct described in the bundle that was the subject of separate legal proceedings, and we take account of the fact that confirming or denying that the information is held is likely to lead to some distress to the headteacher simply by raising this issue again.
Taking into account the value of transparency arising out of the expenditure of significant sums of public money, we are persuaded that the interests or fundamental rights of the data subject are outweighed by the legitimate interest in confirming or denying that the information is held.
We find that the School was not entitled to rely on section 40(5B) to refuse to confirm or deny that the information was held.
- Heading
- Introduction
- Factual background to the appeal
- Request, decision notice and appeal
- The response
- The Decision Notice
- Notice of Appeal
- The Commissioner’s response
- Legal framework
- The role of the tribunal
- Issues
- Discussion and conclusions
- Would confirming or denying that the requested information was held constitute the disclosure of a third party’s personal data?
- Is a third party pursuing a legitimate interest or interests?
- Is the confirmation or denial necessary for the purposes of those interests?
- Are the legitimate interests overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject?
- Next steps