26-27/017

We refer to your request for information (FOI 26-27/017) dated 29 July 2026 which we have handled under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). 

Your information request

You requested the following:

“sample blank full registration certificate (which shows the successfully registered teacher)  

sample blank professional recognition certificate (which shows the award of professional recognition)  

sample blank headship certificate (which shows the award of headship qualification)  

sample blank approval of teacher education courses certificate.”

Our response:

For information, FOISA provides you with a right to request copies of information that we hold in a recorded format at the time of your request. However, it does not give you a right to request actual copies of the documents containing information and such a request would be considered invalid.

Although you have requested copies of actual documents, under our duty to give you advice and assistance in relation to your request (s15, FOISA) we have dealt with your request as if it were a request for the information contained in the blank documents you have referred to in your request.

We confirm that we hold information contained in the documents described at items 1 to 3 of the list in your request. However, we do not hold the information described at item 4 of your request so hereby give you notice under section 17 of FOISA that this information is not held by us in a recorded format.

Please find attached a copy of the information you have requested at items 1 to 3 above, extracted from the actual documents and provided in the attached PDF. The only information that has been withheld from you is an actual signature contained in each document. That information has been withheld from disclosure under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA when read with section 38(2A)(a) of FOISA, because disclosure into the public domain under FOISA would be unfair as it would be beyond the reasonable expectations of the individual concerned, and thereby unlawful in terms of Article 5(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (first data protection principles of Fairness, Lawfulness and Transparency). The exemption in section 38(1)(b) of FOISA is an absolute exemption and so no public interest test requires to be applied in order to maintain that exemption.

Right to review and appeal:

You may request a review of how we have dealt with this information request if you are dissatisfied with this response. This can be done by contacting us at informationgovernance@gtcs.org.uk, describing your original request and explaining the basis for your dissatisfaction. You have 40 working days from the date of receipt of this response to submit a review request.  

Once the review process has been completed, if you are still dissatisfied, you have six months in which you can apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision. See the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making an appeal for information about how to do this.