23-24/98

I refer to your request for information dated 19 March 2024 (FOI 23 -24 / 98) in which you asked for information on the Register of the General Teaching Council for Scotland.  

Specifically, you asked for information on all current registrations to include Sex, Registration Status, Qualification, Last Known Employer, Fitness to Teach, Standard for Headship and Professional Recognition. You also clarified that this information should be provided in .csv or .xls format.

I note that this request is identical to a previous request (FOI 23-24/83) to which we responded on 23 February 2024. We applied the exemption contained within section 38(1)(b) of FOISA to this response and, as a result, you submitted an internal review on the same day requesting we substitute our decision. We responded to your internal review request on 19 March 2024 by upholding the original decision. You have now submitted an identical request for the information.  

As the previous request is substantially similar to the current one, we are not obliged to comply with this request. A reasonable amount of time has not elapsed between making the initial and then subsequent request such that neither the information within nor circumstances of our reply have changed significantly in the 38 working days between these two requests. Therefore, FOISA does not oblige us to respond to this request under section 14(2).

If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk to request GTCS conduct a review of this decision. You should describe the original request and explain your grounds of review. You have 40 working days from receipt of this decision to submit a review request. When the review process has been completed, if you are still dissatisfied, you may use the Scottish Information Commissioner's guidance on making an appeal to make an appeal to the Commissioner.

I refer to your request dated 1 April 2024 (FOI 24-25 Review/01) for a review of the response you received on the same date to your original information request (FOI 23-24/98) dated 19 March 2024. I was appointed to undertake the internal review.

I have considered your original request for information, your review request, and our organisation’s obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). For the reasons set out below, I have concluded that the original decision should be modified.

In your original request you stated the following:

Would it be possible to get information on all current registration to GTCS? This file would have about 80,000 rows and be about 10 MB in size, but even an old laptop can easily handle this and I think the information could be useful.

If possible I would like columns for Sex, Registration Status, Qualification, Last Known Employer. (i.e. the information currently available to the public on the register but not including First Name and Surname).

We noted that this request was substantially similar to a previous request (FOI 23-24/83) in which we provided you with the number of Registrants in each of the categories under your request however, we cited section 38(1)(b) of FOISA as an exemption to providing all of the categories alongside each other as this could enable individuals to be identified.

On 23 February 2024, you sent an email requesting we review our decision in FOI 23-24/83 under section 20(1) of FOISA to which we responded on 19 March 2024 upholding our original decision.

In reviewing those records identified under the request, we note that you have altered this request (FOI 23-24/98) from the previous request (FOI 23-24/86) by reducing the categories requested to avoid identifying any of the Registrants. We appreciate that these requests are not identical and that in submitting the second request you are attempting to avoid disclosure of the personal information of third parties and the exemption contained within section 38(1)(b) of FOISA.

I have therefore decided to substitute our original decision by providing you with the information using the categories specified in your request with some modifications. I have attached this information in .xlsx format to ensure that none of the data is lost but if you have any problems reading it, let me know and I can resend as a .csv file. To ensure that individuals are not identifiable as per section 38(1)(b) of FOISA we have grouped the Local Authorities into a single group of “Local Authority” in the response, along with other categories of employer. Where this column is blank, it is because the Registrant has not provided us with information on their current employer.

In your review request, you noted that “granular data” is already available in the public domain. That may be so but those organisations that have released this level of information may have obtained consent to publicly release the names of Registrants, as in the case of individual school websites. We do not have the same relationship with Registrants and they are entitled to expect us to treat the information that we hold about them responsibly.

As the regulator of teachers in Scotland, we must have regard to the public interest in the performance of our functions. One of the ways we do this is by operating a public-facing register. However, the information available through the Search the Register function requires an individual to first know the name of the Registrant to then confirm their details. This balances the obligations we have to both Registrants and the public, as it is necessary for ‘the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’ (as per Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR) whilst being proportionate to the level of access the public needs to have to our Register to fulfil that obligation.

From a data protection perspective, we must consider our obligations under FOISA to comply with the data protection principles when sharing information and demonstrate that we have considered how that data will then be used by a third party.

When we release information under FOISA, we have to take the approach that if we disclose information to one person, we should be expected to disclose it to all. While you may not be able to identify individuals from the information you have requested, others may be able to do so.

I trust that this has been of assistance but if you remain dissatisfied with the responses you have received, you have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner. You must do so within six months of receipt of this response. The Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal describes the process, including the application form. Further information, including relevant contact details is available on the website.