[2025] UKUT 308 (AAC)

SoSE published a book in September 2021 Sex Ed: An Inclusive Teenage Guide to Sex and Relationships. The book was in the public domain at the date of the Appellant’s FOIA request and contained a chapter on consent, the same subject as the Session. It cannot reasonably be suggested that the Slides contained information distinct from that in this chapter. At the hearing, Mr Moss took the Upper Tribunal through the book at some length, arguing that it is reasonable to assume that much of its 21 pages of material on consent would be replicated in the Slides and that anything that is in the book cannot also be confidential;

according to the School, SoSE is used by 300 other schools. It may therefore be presumed that the Slides had already been presented at other schools;

the Commissioner found, at paragraph 17 of his Decision Notice, that at least some of the information in the Materials was replicated elsewhere in the public domain.

“36. We were not impressed by the claim that third parties with copyright in the disclosed materials would be alienated UCLAN's compliance with a decision that this information must be provided. None gave evidence to that effect”;

“42. It is plainly important that universities should be encouraged to innovate in the courses that they offer and in the methods of teaching that they employ. The question is whether disclosure of course material, specifically in this instance but with an eye to the wider picture, will blunt the urge to innovate by removing the incentive”;

“46. The public interest in disclosure seems to us appreciably stronger. Apart from the universal arguments about transparency and the improvement of public awareness, we find that there are particular interests here, arising from the nature of a university and the way it is funded.

First, the public has a legitimate interest in monitoring the content and the academic quality of a course, particularly a relatively new course in a new area of study, funded, to a very significant extent, by the taxpayer…

Secondly, this is especially the case where, as with the BSc. (Homeopathy), there is significant public controversy as to the value of such study within a university. In this case, that factor standing alone would have persuaded us that the balance of public interest favoured disclosure.”;

“54. We regard the claim of disruption and consequent expense resulting from a flood of similar requests prompted by disclosure of this information as tenuous…”.