According to an article in Times Higher Education, the government has rejected the attempt by Universities UK to have further exemptions inserted into the FOI Act that would benefit academics at the expense of the public.
Home Office minister Lord Henley said this week that he believed that “adequate protection already exists” for pre-publication research.
The Act already exempts information if it will be published in the future or if it would be commercially damaging.
Lord Henley acknowledged that “adequate safeguards must exist within information rights legislation to make sure that that position [of universities] is not undermined through inappropriate and premature disclosure.”