Chancellor’. If you deliver this to the Office of the Vice Chancellor, the staff there
will send me the sealed, internal envelope by special delivery
care was taken to inform interviewees that once notes had been agreed the
recording of the zoom calls and transcripts would be deleted (page 1659)
in a blog of 28 August 2020 staff and students of UoE were told about the
review to be undertaken and that:“The University Community is invited to to contribute comment, insight and
testimony into the circumstances surrounding these events using confidential
communication mechanisms. This feedback may be submitted antonymously”
“All feedback will be kept confidentially and the names of identifiable contributions
or others named not disclosed unless required to do so by law”
in a blog dated 15 October 2020 by the VC he reported on the progress of the
Report and also referred to the mechanisms in place to enable anonymous
feedback (1664)
92. We reviewed the Report together with the Table showing the rationale for the
redactions from page 1022 of the Bundle. We also reviewed this material in its
unredacted form in the Closed Bundle. In our view the approach taken by UoE
was reasonable to ensure that in the context of the background to the Report
and to protect the identity of the contributors clues were not left for a
motivated intruder.
Tribunal’s Conclusion – section 41
93. We considered the submissions of the parties on section 41. We have seen the
evidence including the context of and the way in which the evidence for the
Report was taken. We have seen what contributors knew, were told and will
have reasonably assumed. In our view:
the relevant information was information obtained by UoE from third parties
for the purposes of section 41(1)(a)
it does have the necessary quality of confidence
it was communicated in circumstances of confidence
its unauthorised disclosure would be a breach of the duty of confidence that
would be actionable by the confider
94. We have considered the competing arguments regarding whether UoE would
have a public interest defence to any such action.
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