21^st December 2009

Dear Mr Tyler

Re: Your appeal against our response to your request for information

Thank you for your email dated 11^th December 2009.

Initially please accept my apologies for my officers originally having misunderstood your request of 7^th October, repeated on 5^th November 2009 and for the delay in providing an answer to your follow up query and clarification of 18^th November 2009. My officer had been looking into this matter for you but had not received a reply when we received your request for an internal review.

From reviewing the correspondence I believe your current question to be as follows;

On 17^th September 2009, Graham Badman via DCSF email made a further call for evidence to Local Authorities regarding the Review/Report into Elective Home Education. I am requesting your response to that call.

I can confirm I have made enquiries with the Children's Services Department and they have advised that the Home Education Team confirm that the only response they made was completion of the online questionnaire. (The response to which has already been provided to you with our reply of 18^th November 2009). The representative within Children's Services has also stated he has made enquiries with colleagues in the two intelligence teams within Children's Services (the teams that analyse data held with our social care and education systems) and they confirm that they did not make a return relating to consultation and did not produce any data for anyone else for them to be able to make a response to the DCSF's questions.

Regrettably Children's Services are therefore unable to explain why the DCSF has recorded us as having responded to their email of 17^th September 2009.

In relation to your observation that my officers' letter to you was contradictory, in that it states we did not respond to the call and then that the exemption at section 40(2) of the Act applied, I can advise that we did not respond to this call as stated above, but that we did respond to the 6 question `Public Questionnaire' on the same subject. It is this returning officers contact details that my officer was exempting in accordance with section 40(2), although I agree that this should have been made clearer within the letter and for this omission I sincerely apologise. As a result of the above, I cannot uphold your appeal although I accept that we should have sought any necessary clarification from you.

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving this response to your complaint you can request an independent review from the Information Commissioner's Office at FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. You may also contact the Information Commissioner's Office by telephone on 01625 545745 or by email at [email address].

Yours sincerely

Mrs S Pearson

Service Manager (Acting)

Information Governance

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