Page v The Information Commissioner and School of Sexuality Education: [2025] UKUT 308 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Mitchell on 5 September 2025.
Read the full decision in .
Judicial Summary
The First-tier Tribunal did not err in law in holding that a parent was not entitled, under section 405 of the Education Act 1996 (the parental right to request a pupil’s excusal from relevant sex education), to be provided with sex education teaching materials relating to a sex education lesson after it had taken place. Section 405 is to be construed as imposing an implied obligation to provide parents with information about proposed relevant sex education although this is not necessarily a right to be provided with all teaching materials. In the Appellant’s case, information was sought in relation to sex education that had already been provided so that the information could not have been sought for the purposes of deciding whether to exercise parental rights under section 405.
The First-tier Tribunal did not err in law in deciding, for the purposes of section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, that disclosure of sex education teaching materials, prepared by an organisation commissioned to provide sex education at a maintained school, would constitute an actionable breach of confidence. The Tribunal dealt properly with the case before it, which bore little resemblance to the highly developed case on the law of confidence that was argued before the Upper Tribunal. Had that case been put to the First-tier Tribunal, the outcome might have been different but an appeal to the Upper Tribunal limited to points of law cannot be used to remedy perceived shortcomings in a party’s case before the First-tier Tribunal.