Editors‘ Note:
This article was compiled and written by OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plus, Anthropic’s Claude AI and reviewed by the human editors of Eat News.
The UK Upper Tribunal has overturned a decision by the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) to strike out an appeal relating to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The case involved an FOI request by Professor Hwan Lin to the London School of Economics (LSE) seeking information about a public statement made by the LSE regarding a degree awarded to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. The LSE declined to issue a refusal notice, stating the request was vexatious under section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Professor Lin appealed this decision to the Information Commissioner, who upheld the LSE’s position in a Decision Notice. Professor Lin then appealed the Decision Notice to the FTT. The Information Commissioner applied to have the appeal struck out on the basis that Professor Lin had failed to properly explain why the Decision Notice was legally flawed. The FTT agreed and struck out the appeal in a ruling on 12 January 2023.
Professor Lin was granted permission to appeal the strike out decision to the Upper Tribunal. In a decision dated 21 June 2023, Upper Tribunal Judge Wikeley found the FTT was wrong to strike out the appeal. Although the original grounds of appeal lacked clarity in places, Judge Wikeley held they were sufficient to engage the jurisdiction of the FTT to conduct a full merits review under section 58 of the Act.
The decision states that while the FTT has a limited role in reviewing Decision Notices, the strike out power should only be used in plain and obvious cases. Here, Professor Lin had raised factual challenges relevant to whether his request was vexatious. The Upper Tribunal judged that the interests of justice required those issues to be aired at a full hearing.
Accordingly, the FTT’s strike out decision was overturned as involving an error of law. The case has been remitted to the FTT for reconsideration before a different judge. The FTT will now have to reconsider the Information Commissioner’s application to strike out Professor Lin’s original appeal.
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