Ministry of Education, Culture and Science – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

The appellant, in connection with a dispute with her son's former school, has requested the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science to inspect her and her son's file. The Minister has partially granted the request for access, but wrongly did not grant access to the personal policy views of civil servants. Following a decision of the Council of State, the Minister amended its order and granted the appellant access to more documents, including to the personal policy views of civil servants, subject to the removal of the personal data of third parties. The appellant appealed, arguing that the Minister has not provided all the documents covered by her request and has therefore failed to comply adequately with the Council of State’s first ruling. Also, according to the appellant, the Minister has glossed over more than just personal data in the documents submitted. Has the Minister provided all personal data covered by the access request of the data subject? The appeal is unfounded. The Council of State ruled that the appellant did not make it plausible that the Minister did not provide all the documents covered by her request. Also, in view of Article 15(1) of the GDPR, the appellant has no right to personal data of third parties. This includes information by which a third party can be directly or indirectly identified. The Minister has therefore rightly omitted/deleted the litigated passages.