Dear St John’s College,

(A) Please release minutes of your Governing Body meetings from January 2017 to present. I note that some of the information I’m requesting is on your website; however, I am seeking the information in an unredacted form or, where redactions are made, please justify them with reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

(B) Moreover, please release minutes (from the same time period requested above) of your Academic Services Committee, Admissions Committee, Decanal Committee, Domestic Committee, Educational Policy Committee, Ethical Investment Working Group, General Purposes Committee, Investment Committee, Remuneration Committee, Middle Common Room and Junior Common Room.

If you seek to claim an exemption for reason of cost and/or time, please proceed with this request until such a time-limit or cost-limit is reached.

Best wishes,

William Maitland

Dear St John's College, Oxford,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of St John's College, Oxford's handling of my FOI request 'College Administration Minutes'.

In response to item (A) of my request, Mr Parker provided a link to information you have published on your website. Please could you provide the minutes of Governing Body from 4 December 2019 to 21 February 2020 that appear to be omitted.

In response to item (B) of my request, Mr Parker confuses the public authority's statutory duty under section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to establish a publication scheme with the public authority’s statutory duty to provide information on request under section 1 of the Act. The two are not linked. To withhold information, the public authority may only rely on an exemption provided for under Part II of the Act.

I appreciate Mr Parker’s concern that “College committees do not take decisions, they act as working groups that prepare recommendations and advice for Governing Body’s consideration”. However, to effectively scrutinise the public authority, it is necessary to consider the information relied upon in its decision-making.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

William Maitland