The Cabinet Office has refused a request to release the report into accusations of bullying by a government minister.

Release of the report was blocked with the government saying it contains personal information and therefore ’not subject to the public interest test’.

Accusations of institutional bullying were made against Minister for Education, Sport and Culture Graham Cregeen by the National Association of Head Teachers.

The union wrote to Chief Minister Howard Quayle and head of the island’s civil service, Will Greenhow, to make the complaint which led to a formal investigation being launched.

That investigation has now been concluded and it has been confirmed the report of the findings has been presented to Mr Greenhow. However, Mr Quayle has since said he had ’no plans’ for a reshuffle without making the findings of the report public.

Isle of Man Newspapers then submitted a Freedom of Information request for the report to be released.

However, the Cabinet Office has refused to release the report, saying it is ’absolutely exempt’ under section 25 of the FoI Act, which exempts the release of personal information and ’therefore not subject to the public interest test’.

The response to our request said: ’This exemption is engaged as it covers any reference within the information to personal data of which you, the applicant, are not the data subject and disclosure would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5.

’When responding to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2015 the Cabinet Office must be mindful that disclosure under the Act is a disclosure to the world at large, not just to the requester, and therefore it has to balance the right of access to information under the Act against an individual’s right to privacy and compliance with Article 5.’

It is understood the accusations refer to meetings held in April and July, where the conduct of the minister to union representatives was questioned.

Expanding on its decision, the Cabinet Office said it was ’satisfied’ that the exemptions it has used to refuse our Freedom of Information request apply to the information we requested.

It added: ’The information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject.

’Disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5, namely that the Cabinet Office can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and none of those conditions have been met.’

â?¢ We have formally requested an internal review into the decision by the Cabinet Office to refuse our FoI request citing that the release of the report is in the ’overwhelming public interest’ due to the position of Mr Cregeen.