Taimur Khan v The Information Commissioner & Anor

Facts

The appellant, Mr Taimur Khan, made a request on 7 November 2024 to Leeds City Council under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the full and final report produced by PwC for the work it had carried out on the Council's Special Educational Needs and Disability improvement programme. The Council refused disclosure, and the Information Commissioner upheld that refusal on the footing that the exemption in section 43(2) of FOIA for prejudice to commercial interests was engaged and that the balance of public interests under section 2(2)(b) of FOIA favoured maintaining the exemption. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) (Information Rights), which determined the matter on the papers before Judge Harris and Members Chafer and Yates and, by a decision dated 28 November 2025, upheld the Commissioner's decision. Permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal was granted in a notice sent to the parties on 9 March 2026. Both respondents — the Information Commissioner and the Council — accepted in their responses that the First-tier Tribunal had made material errors of law and that its decision should be set aside and the case remitted; the appellant, by contrast, sought an oral hearing and asked the Upper Tribunal to re-make the decision itself.