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I refer to the request for information that you submitted on 9 October as follows:

I require a copy of information held by the GTCS in relation to the IT architecture related to the Teaching Register and its associated search capabilities. Of particular interest is how the member of the public search functionality works, i.e., once the name is inputted into the search boxes and entered what happens next. For example, is the query run against the live system of record register or is it run against an extracted copy of it. If an extracted copy how often is this updated to ensure it remains current with the actual register. A visual diagram of the architecture would also be helpful.

We referred your request to colleagues in our Digital team who confirmed that we do not hold any information that corresponds with your request. We therefore apply section 17 of FOISA, information not held. To meet our obligations under the Act, we also contacted the software providers who built the search the register function and have licensed use of it to us. They confirmed that they hold technical information associated with the public search functionality. However, apart from the potential security issues of releasing technical information about its functionality in the public domain, they confirmed that the search function itself is their intellectual property and to share it with a third party would breach the terms of our licence. I therefore consider that the exemption within section33(1)(b) of FOISA (Commercial interests and the economy) applies, in that disclosure ‘would be likely to prejudice substantially the commercial interests of any party’.

There is a clear public interest in the transparency and accountability of public authorities, particularly in relation to how it conducts itself commercially. This is why GTC Scotland publishes its annual report and financial statements for public review through its website, which shows how we spend the teacher registration fees that fund our work. However, there is also considerable public interest in GTC Scotland entering into contracts with third parties who operate in a commercially sensitive environment and protecting their commercial information to ensure that those relationships are not compromised, and GTC Scotland’s reputation is not undermined. In this case, we consider that the public interest in withholding the request information outweighs the public interest in releasing it.

However, in line with our responsibility to offer advice and assistance under section 15, I can offer the following information.

As noted in a recent response that we issued to your request for a review of one of your previous responses, the data for the Search the Register function pulls directly from the Register of Teachers database, not an extracted copy, and so for the period of time during which the named individual’s surname was misspelt on the Register of Teachers database (caused by an administrative error during an upload function), the name did not show on Search the Register when the correct spelling was used for the search until the error in the surname spelling was corrected.

We therefore consider that further information about the IT architecture of Search the Register would offer no insight into how the error occurred and how it was rectified.

I hope this information is of some assistance. You may contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk if you are dissatisfied with this response, to request GTC Scotland to 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.