Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015
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Refusal of access to certain information | ||
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7. The Education Act 1998 is amended by the substitution of the following section for section 53 (amended by section 5 of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2007 )— | ||
“53. (1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, the Minister may refuse access to information specified in subsection (4) (in this section referred to as the ‘specified information’). | ||
(2) The Minister may, following consultation with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, by regulations prescribe a public body for the purposes of this section. | ||
(3) Notwithstanding any other enactment, where a public body stands prescribed for the time being under subsection (2) that public body shall refuse access to the specified information unless the Minister— | ||
(a) consents to the public body granting access to that information, or | ||
(b) directs the public body to grant access to that information. | ||
(4) The specified information is any information— | ||
(a) which would enable the compilation of information (that is not otherwise available to the general public) in relation to the comparative performance of— | ||
(i) recognised schools in respect of the academic achievement of students, or | ||
(ii) education or training facilities in respect of the academic achievement of learners, | ||
including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing— | ||
(I) the overall results or outcomes in any period of time of students in a recognised school or learners in an education or training facility in an examination or assessment, or | ||
(II) the comparative overall results or outcomes in any period of time of students in different recognised schools or learners in different education or training facilities in an examination or assessment, | ||
or | ||
(b) relating to the identity of examiners. | ||
(5) In this section— | ||
‘Act of 2013’ means the Education and Training Boards Act 2013 ; | ||
‘education or training facility’ has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2013; | ||
‘learner’ has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2013; | ||
‘public body’ has the same meaning as it has in the Freedom of Information Act 2014 .”. |