25-26/005

I refer to your request for information (FOI 25-26/005) dated 05 April 2025 for records related to teacher unions which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA). Our apologies for delivering this response to you a day late.

You asked for “all information” regarding  “communications, understanding, policy and or agreements” with “any teacher union” on the “handling of potential or actual fitness to teach referrals made by a registered teacher against another registered teacher” to include “all emails, letters and documents” for disclosure under FOISA.

On 10 April, we requested that you provide us with clarification in the form of a time-period and specific parties to be considered in a search. You indicated on the same day, that “EIS and NASUWT” would suffice as parties and records since “2010” should be considered. Thank you for providing us with these clarifications.

We have conducted a search and do not hold any information containing an “understanding, policy or agreement” with the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) or NASUWT on the “handling of potential or actual fitness to teach referrals made by a registered teacher against another registered teacher.” In addition, we do not hold records from or to any teacher union considering “potential” referrals. We have therefore applied section 17(1)(b) of FOISA to these elements of your request.

In terms of what information we hold in relation to “communications” within “actual fitness to teach referrals”, we will hold communications with professional associations (such as EIS and NASUWT in line with your request) if an individual registrant, who is the subject of a referral (where a registered teacher has made a referral about another registered teacher in line with your request,) and is represented by such a Professional Association. We would consider that any such communications would fall within the scope of your request as relating to the “handling” of “actual fitness to teach referrals”. We would note, however, that any such communications are likely to be procedural in nature in terms of managing the progression of the case.

To locate and retrieve this information, we would have to search approximately 5747 teacher records, as we have no means of filtering the records based on the criteria and time period provided in the request.

Due to the significant amount of time and resources it would take to locate and retrieve these records, we have determined that section 12(1) of FOISA would apply to this element of your request due to the excessive cost of compliance. Section 12(1) provides that section 1(1) of FOISA does not oblige a Scottish public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the amount prescribed in regulations made by the Scottish Ministers, which is currently £600. Please see our detailed Fees Notice below:

• The number of teacher records to be searched: 5747 records
• Actual cost of staff time at hourly rate of member of staff: £15.00 as the search would need to be undertaken by an individual who is familiar with the records
• Number of hours required to complete the search: 5747 records at an average of 20 minutes per record for a total of 1915.66 hours.
• Total cost: 1915.66 hours multiplied by £15.00 per hour = £28,734.90

By way of advice and assistance, if you were to limit the scope of your request to cover the period from August 2017, instead of 2010, we estimate that this would cost approximately £130.50 to provide you with the information that would fall within the scope of your refined request. We are able to filter the records we hold for this timeframe. This would bring the request within the regulated fee range. Please let us know if you wish to make a more limited request for information.

If you are dissatisfied with how we have dealt with your information request, you can contact informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk to request that GTC Scotland conduct a review of this response under FOISA. You should describe the original request and explain why you are dissatisfied with our response to your initial request. You have 40 working days from receipt of this response to submit a review request.

If you are still dissatisfied with our response, following a review, you have a right to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision within 6 months. Details of how to do this are set out in the Commissioner’s Guidance available on the Commissioner’s website.