Claimant – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2021)

Following alleged sexual abuse, the appellants requested the Dutch Inspectorate of Education ('the Inspectorate') to allow them to access documents and obtain a copy of all documentation concerning reports, announcements and/or questions made by, through or about the school community and submitted confidentially to inspectors or staff members. The request was made pre-GDPR, under the Dutch Personal Data Protection Act ('Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens'). More specifically, the appellants wished to obtain a copy of all documents known to the Inspectorate regarding the alleged sexual abuse. On 21 November 2016, this request was rejected by the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education and the Media ('the Minister'), since: # it was unclear to whose personal data the request was related; # the national law did not provide the right to obtain a copy but to access; and # the Dutch Education Supervision Act (Wet op het onderwijstoezicht') guarantees full confidentiality. By decision of 8 December 2017, the Minister provided a number of documents containing personal data of appellant A and his son in full and a number of documents in part. Insofar as more personal data of the appellants were held by the Inspectorate, the Minister refused access due to the above-mentioned confidentiality. By decision of 27 November 2018, the Minister dismissed the appellants' objection to the decision of 21 November 2016 as unfounded. The appellant filed an appeal with the Amsterdam District Court. On 29 August 2019, the Amsterdam District Court declared that the appeal lodged by the appellant was unfounded. With regard to the appellants' documents and other data, which are held by the Inspectorate and to which the above-mentioned confidentiality (Section 6(4) of the Education Supervision Act) applies, the District Court ruled that the Minister was entitled to refuse access to these documents, insofar as they are present and contain personal data of the appellants, on the grounds of