Court over-rules UK Information Commissioner, finding academy trust broke the law in dismissing couple’s FOI request as “vexatious”

Bosco Catholic Education Trust, currently ultimately controlled by the man who is to become the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, should have responded to questions about how it responded to official investigations, tribunal finds.

 

An academy trust, ultimately controlled by a bishop who is to become the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, broke the law in wrongly categorising a Freedom of Information request by two parents as “vexatious,” a court has found.

Bosco Catholic Education Trust, which runs 17 schools in Sussex, has been ordered to reply afresh to the married couple’s request, after a tribunal over-ruled the findings of the UK’s Information Commissioner, finding that the chain needed to respond to questions about how a long-running complaint had been investigated, and how it had reacted to investigations by two other organisations.

The Bosco trust is in the ultimate control of the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Richard Moth, who is the Archbishop-elect of Westminster. The tribunal’s ruling may have implications for other cases in which schools and trusts have rejected requests for information as “vexatious”.

The trust had not responded to questions from Liz and Richard Kennedy, the latter of whom is a former vice-chair of governors at one of its schools, relating to how it had reacted to investigations by the Department for Education and the Information Commissioner (ICO) which they had prompted.

Bosco had argued that such a request had been “vexatious” – a categorisation which, if accepted, allows FOI requests not to be answered. When Mr and Mrs Kennedy challenged this with the ICO, John Edwards, the latter agreed with the trust.

However, when they took the request to the highest part of the FOI system, a first-tier tribunal in which three judges heard the case, it dismissed the argument, stating that it had been reasonable for the couple to seek answers on the trust’s reactions to the investigations.

Bosco was also found to have broken the law by not responding within the statutory 20 days to the original request.

Bosco is to appeal against the tribunal’s decision, it has now told Education Uncovered.