The case arose from a request made to the University of East Anglia to produce an email and attachment related to an alleged manipulation of data of the historical climate record--the "hockey stick" graph controversy. The University's informal refusal had been upheld by the Information Commissioner, who ruled that the email did not need to be produced as its sender no longer had possession or control of it (he had deleted it as part of routine cleaning out of his inbox and outbox). The Commissioner reached this conclusion even though a copy of the email was stored on the University's email back-up system. The Information Tribunal overturned the decision of the Information Commissioner, determining that if the email still existed then the language of the Regulation required the University to either produce it or issue a valid refusal notice.
Case Documents:
Filing Date | Type | File | Summary |
---|---|---|---|
01/18/2012 | Decision | Download | No summary available. |