Mr John Walker
By e-mail to: [FOI #21400 email]
Our Reference: 46932
16th November 2009
Dear Mr Walker,
I am writing with reference to your request for information regarding Common
Purpose, dated 20th October 2009, made under section 1(1) of the Freedom of
Information Act.
You asked for the following information:
1. the names and ranks/grades of all employees in your organisation who are
Common Purpose 'graduates'.
This information is not held by the NPIA.
2. the total expenditure by your organisation on Common Purpose courses from
your formation to date together with a copy of the invoice for each Common
Purpose course paid for by your organisation.
I have established that the total amount of expenditure on Common Purpose
courses is £9558.00.
The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly and in any case no later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. We must consider firstly
whether we can comply with s1(1)(a) of the Act, which is our duty to confirm
whether or not the information requested is held and secondly we must comply with
s1(1)(b), which is the provision of such information. However, when a qualified
exemption applies either to the confirmation or denial or the information provision
and the public interest test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be
longer than 20 working days, if the balance of such public interest is undetermined.
In this case, I can confirm that we do hold the invoices within the scope of your
request, but we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public
National Policing Improvement Agency
interest lies in respect of either of the above obligations. We estimate that it will
take an additional 5 working days to take a decision on where this balance lies.
Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by 20th November 2009. If it appears
that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, you will be kept informed.
The specific exemption(s) which apply in relation to your request is/are:
Section 31 (Law enforcement) – the requested information contains bank details
which may be use to commit fraud. This is a qualified exemption and we are
therefore required to decide whether this information is in the public interest to
disclose.
Section 40 (Personal Information) – the request information contains personal
information of non-NPIA staff.
Your right to complain
We take our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act seriously but, if
you feel your request has not been properly handled or you are otherwise
dissatisfied with the outcome of your request, you have the right to complain. We
will investigate the matter and endeavour to reply within 3 – 6 weeks. You should
write to:
David Horne
Director of Resources
National Policing Improvement Agency
10-18 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0NN
E-mail:
[email address]
If you are still dissatisfied following our internal review, you have the right, under
section 50 of the Act, to complain directly to the Information Commissioner. Before
considering your complaint, the Information Commissioner would normally expect
you to have exhausted the complaints procedures provided by the NPIA. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
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© NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency)
National Policing Improvement Agency
Further information about the NPIA is routinely published on our website at
www.npia.police.uk or through our publication scheme. If you require any further
assistance in connection with this request please contact us at our address above.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Woodgate
IKS Advisor
National Policing Improvement Agency
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© NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency)
