Maurice Frankel, the director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information has made his own contribution to the Stirling University FOI question, claiming in remarkable fashion that an obscure exemption for FOI requests submitted to Scottish bodies may apply to Stirling.
The researchers have argued that if they are forced to hand over the information (presumably even in anonymised form from which subjects could not be identified), funders will be reluctant to back them, other academics will not share data with them and teenagers will refuse to be interviewed in future.
If this is true, then a specific exemption in the Scottish FOI Act may apply. This allows information collected during a continuing programme of research to be withheld if future reports are planned and disclosure would substantially prejudice them. The exemption is subject to a public-interest test. Other exemptions, such as breach of confidence, may also apply. This means the "catastrophe" the researchers warn about may not be imminent at all.
As far as I can tell, he is referring to S27(1) of the Scottish FOI Act (see here for a guidance note). As far as I can tell Frankel is making a heroic interpretation of the legislation. The guidance note says:
The...exemption permits information relating to research programmes to be withheld in certain circumstances. Information obtained or derived from a programme of research is exempt if the research itself is intended for publication and premature disclosure would jeopardise the programme, any individual participant or any of the public authorities involved in the research.
So they can withhold the information until it is published. And just in case Stirling were thinking of being clever, there's also this:
Before deciding to rely on this exemption, an authority must satisfy itself that, at the time the request was made, the information was scheduled to be published within 12 weeks. The exemption contained in section 27(1) cannot apply if the authority only decides to publish the information after an individual has requested it.