Does the Act mean that students can access copies of exam papers or questions ahead of an exam?
No. If a student attempted to gain access to an exam paper relating to a forthcoming exam, the information is likely to be exempt from disclosure. Exam papers are information intended for future publication. Any student trying access a paper ahead of the exam would have to wait until it is published on the day of the exam. For previous years papers that are not disclosed to students because the paper is similar or the same every year, the same exemption would still apply. It is a Freedom of INFORMATION Act and not a Freedom of DOCUMENT Act. If a student requests a previous years paper that was more or less the same as a forthcoming paper, we would be required disclose it. However, as we are allowed to redact1 and edit documents according to the exemption categories, under these circumstances, we would provide the previous years paper but with all the information we plan to publish in the forthcoming examination paper edited out. Access to questions contained in a bank of questions woul
