If you have submitted a Freedom of Information request please accept this
email as acknowledgement that your request has been received. You should
expect a response from us within 20 working days. 
“You will appreciate that all information requests place some degree of
demand on a public authority’s resources in terms of costs and staff time
and that UCL may need to prioritise resources to other areas, or adapt its
usual approach to information compliance work, in order to meet the
unprecedented challenges we are all facing during the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic.

Therefore, we need to advise you may experience delays in receiving
responses to information rights requests during the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic.”

For details on how we use your personal information, please see UCL's
general privacy
notice: [1]www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy/general-privacy-notice
Data Protection & FOI
Legal Services
UCL

References

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Dear Lola, 

Thank you for your request of 16 June 2021.  

We have completed the compilation of information in response to your
request for information on UCL's Medicine Admissions Statistics for entry
2020 & 2021.

We can confirm that we do hold some of the information of the description
specified in your request and this information is provided in the attached
document. 

As you will see within the attached document, some of the information
requested has been withheld because the information is exempt under the
provisions of the Act.  We have set out the section in the text of the
document attached, and the explanation of the exemptions applied is set
out below.

Personal Data (section 40).

We have withheld information where it is personal data of third parties
or, if linked with other personal identifiers in the public domain, would
likely to become personal data. As noted, this information has been
withheld under Section 40(2) of the FOIA by virtue of Section
40(3)(a)(i). 

Section 40(2) of the FOIA allows a public authority to withhold
information under the FOIA where (i) the requested information is personal
data relating to someone other than the requester and (ii) its disclosure
would breach any of the Data Protection principles. In this case, we
believe that the requested information could identify individuals and on
the basis that the individuals would have an expectation of
confidentiality we do not think that the disclosure of the personal data
would be within the reasonable expectations of the individuals concerned
and it would be unfair to share it; this therefore breaches the first Data
Protection principle. 

As the Section 40(2) exemption is an absolute one, there is no need to
conduct a public interest test. 

Commercial Interests (section 43)

Section 43(2) states:

“Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would,
or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person
(including the public authority holding it).”

The requested information has been withheld owing to the prejudice that
would occur to UCL’s commercial interests on account of competitive
institutions becoming aware of UCL’s examination methods.

Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption under the Act and as such a public
interest test is required to assess where the balance of
disclosure/non-disclosure lies.  Please see the test below.

Public interest test for the application of Section 43(2):

Arguments in favour of disclosure:

·         It is recognised that there is an inherent public interest in
ensuring openness, value for money, transparency and accountability with
regards to UCL’s assessment methods.

Arguments against disclosure:

·      UCL competes in a highly competitive market environment in terms of
student recruitment.  UCL competes with other higher education
institutions nationally and globally for this talent.

·      The selling of courses is UCL’s commercial activity.  To disclose
course materials which support its recruitment and education of students
would prejudice UCL’s position in the highly competitive marketplace of
student recruitment by revealing commercially sensitive information to its
competitors.  Such competitors could then freely exploit these valuable
assets developed by UCL at a significant cost to itself, and use such
material to develop and promote their own courses – giving them a
commercial advantage.

·      Undermining its position in this way would in turn be likely to
have a detrimental impact on UCL’s commercial revenue.  Such an impact
would prejudice UCL’s core business functions and even undermine its
ability to fulfil its role, which is not in the public interest.

Outcome of public interest test:

·         On this occasion, we consider that the public interest arguments
against disclosure outweigh those for disclosure in this instance.

You are free to use any information supplied for your own use, including
for non-commercial research purposes. The information may also be used for
the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for
example by publishing or issuing copies to the public, will require the
permission of the copyright owner. 

If you are unhappy with our response to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request a review of our decision, please
email [1][email address]. Emails should include the words ‘Internal
Review’ in the subject and be marked For the Attention of the Chief
Operating Officer, alternatively you should write to: 

Chief Operating Officer 

University College London 

Gower Street 

London 

WC1E 6BT  

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner at the address given below.
You should do this within two months of our final decision. (Please note,
complaints and requests for internal review received more than two months
after the initial decision will not be handled.) 

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact me using the details
provided in this email and including the request reference number. 

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available from
the Information Commissioner’s Office: 

Wycliffe House 

Water Lane 

Wilmslow 

SK9 5AF 

01625 545700 

[2]www.ico.org.uk 

[3][email address] 

Kind regards,

Michaela 

Michaela Hunt 

Data Protection and Freedom of Information Adviser

University College London

Legal Services

Data Protection: [4][email address]  FOI: [5][UCL request email]

References

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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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5. mailto:[UCL request email]