Can interested parties access External Examiners Reports under the Act?
While the external examiner system depends on a degree of confidentiality to ensure the provision of candid and useful reports, the purpose of the FOIA is to open up the public sector to those it serves. As such, the kind of information contained within the reports is arguably the precise information the Act is designed to provide access to. In dealing with this issue, therefore, there is an important and delicate balance to be struck between protecting the University and providing information that is considered to be in the public interest. Despite the existence of a number of exemptions within the FOIA to protect certain kinds of information from disclosure, the blanket use of exemptions is frowned upon by the Information Commissioner. This means any approach that sought to categorise all external examiners reports as confidential or as information provided in confidence (the section 36 exemption) would be inappropriate. Therefore, all requests for access to external examiners report
