Thank you for your email. Please consider this as confirmation that your
request has been received and will be processed in line with statutory
deadlines. If there are any delays in responding we will let you know.

Dear Sara,

With reference to your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, I am writing to inform you that parts of your request has
been refused for the following reasons. Please note that we are having to
take more time to review the Governance Committee minutes and will try to
get these to you early next week.

While it is the School’s policy to respond as fully as possible to
requests for information, it is not always able to do so. All refusals
must be justified by reference to an exemption from the obligation to
disclose the information specified in the FoI legislation. In this
instance, the following exemptions have been applied to the minutes where
required:

• Section 40(2). We have used this exemption because this relates to
personal data relating to other individuals. This has been applied to
parts of Council, SMC and Governance Committee minutes where the School
considers it would not be fair to release the personal data and therefore
where the first data protection principle would be breached.

• Section 43(2). We have used this exemption where it relates to
information that could harm the School's commercial position. This has
been applied to parts of Council and SMC minutes. This is a public
interest test exemption and in applying the test, we consider that the
information could be used by the School's competitors to know the
strengths and weaknesses of our commercial position and use this knowledge
to harm the School's ability to pursue our core activities of education
and research. As such, the ability of the School to maintain our
commercial position outweighs the public interest in this information.

• Section 21. This exemption covers information already available which
includes the redacted minutes for Council:
[1]https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/S...

Please note also that we have not provided the papers at this point in
time as we consider that this is a request for documents rather than
information. The School does not believe a request for 'papers' provides
enough information for us to locate the information requested and we could
end up providing more information than actually required. However, if
there are any papers mentioned in the minutes provided to you that you do
want to request, please let us know. It would be helpful to have the
Committee meeting date and minute number to help locate the relevant
paper.

However, should you wish to appeal the decision, put your appeal in
writing to Louise Nadal, School Secretary, London School of Economics and
Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE. We will then review
the response to your request and get back to you within 20 working days.
You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/, though they expect the internal review to be
carried out before receiving a complaint directly.

The other information you requested is enclosed. If you think that the
information provided does not match your request, contact us as detailed
above.

The provision of information by the LSE under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 does not imply a right to copy, reproduce publish or otherwise
use such information.

Copying or reproducing such information in any way either in whole or in
part without prior written consent may be an infringement of copyright or
other intellectual property right belonging to the LSE or a third party.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Team

London School of Economics

show quoted sections

Dear Sara,

As per our last email, the Governance minutes are attached. Please note
that the exemption in Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act has
also been used for these minutes as well.

Regards,

Information Rights Team

London School of Economics

From: GLPD.Info.Rights
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2024 4:52 PM
To: [FOI #1174475 email]
Subject: FW: [FoI/5782] FW: Freedom of Information request - Documentation
of meetings

Dear Sara,

With reference to your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, I am writing to inform you that parts of your request has
been refused for the following reasons. Please note that we are having to
take more time to review the Governance Committee minutes and will try to
get these to you early next week.

While it is the School’s policy to respond as fully as possible to
requests for information, it is not always able to do so. All refusals
must be justified by reference to an exemption from the obligation to
disclose the information specified in the FoI legislation. In this
instance, the following exemptions have been applied to the minutes where
required:

• Section 40(2). We have used this exemption because this relates to
personal data relating to other individuals. This has been applied to
parts of Council, SMC and Governance Committee minutes where the School
considers it would not be fair to release the personal data and therefore
where the first data protection principle would be breached.

• Section 43(2). We have used this exemption where it relates to
information that could harm the School's commercial position. This has
been applied to parts of Council and SMC minutes. This is a public
interest test exemption and in applying the test, we consider that the
information could be used by the School's competitors to know the
strengths and weaknesses of our commercial position and use this knowledge
to harm the School's ability to pursue our core activities of education
and research. As such, the ability of the School to maintain our
commercial position outweighs the public interest in this information.

• Section 21. This exemption covers information already available which
includes the redacted minutes for Council:
[1]https://info.lse.ac.uk/staff/divisions/S...

Please note also that we have not provided the papers at this point in
time as we consider that this is a request for documents rather than
information. The School does not believe a request for 'papers' provides
enough information for us to locate the information requested and we could
end up providing more information than actually required. However, if
there are any papers mentioned in the minutes provided to you that you do
want to request, please let us know. It would be helpful to have the
Committee meeting date and minute number to help locate the relevant
paper.

However, should you wish to appeal the decision, put your appeal in
writing to Louise Nadal, School Secretary, London School of Economics and
Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE. We will then review
the response to your request and get back to you within 20 working days.
You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/, though they expect the internal review to be
carried out before receiving a complaint directly.

The other information you requested is enclosed. If you think that the
information provided does not match your request, contact us as detailed
above.

The provision of information by the LSE under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 does not imply a right to copy, reproduce publish or otherwise
use such information.

Copying or reproducing such information in any way either in whole or in
part without prior written consent may be an infringement of copyright or
other intellectual property right belonging to the LSE or a third party.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Team

London School of Economics

show quoted sections