Administrative / Public Law · First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber)
Dr Robert James Abrahart v The Information Commissioner & Anor
Checked against the judgment on 4 September 2026 · how we verify
Facts
Dr Robert James Abrahart, a member of a campaign for a statutory duty of care owed by higher education providers to their students, made a series of information requests to the Department for Education following the parliamentary debate on the LEARN Network petition on 5 June 2023. On 31 October 2024 he made the clarified request at issue: all documents, letters, emails, reports, summaries, notes, annotations or briefing materials provided by the DfE to the Information Commissioner in an earlier investigation into a co-campaigner's request, excluding the email records already found exempt under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, together with redacted versions where exemptions applied. The DfE refused on 25 November 2024 under section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as repetitive of a substantially similar request from a co-campaigner, upholding that refusal on internal review on 20 December 2024. On complaint, the Commissioner's decision notice of 6 June 2025 held the request vexatious under section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, while finding breaches of sections 1(1)(a) and 10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and required no steps. Dr Abrahart appealed to the First-tier Tribunal, having meanwhile obtained the single document he sought by other means.
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