GLA Letter Template

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Dear Mr Barry,

Thank you for your email dated 19 February 2010.

Our response to your request is as follows:

A copy of the guidance issued to members of the Mayor's Peer Outreach Team when they take up their positions, in particular any guidance relating to the undertaking of political activities while employed by the GLA in this team.

The members of the Peer Outreach team are not employees of the GLA and, as such, are not politically restricted but it is made very clear by line managers that they have a role on the team and responsibility to represent all young Londoners needs and issues in a non partisan way, therefore their own personal/political point of view has to be subject to this.

Could I further have a list of the names of all members of the Peer Outreach Team appointed since May 2008.

This information is being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act. The attached annex to this letter sets out the exemption in full.

Please provide the remuneration and expenses that are offered and given for a role on the Peer Outreach Team.

When recruited to the Peer Outreach team the new member will do their first month as a volunteer. During this period they will receive travel expenses. Once they have done the first month they will then become a member of the team and will be paid £8.50 per hour on a casual basis.

Please provide the recruitment criteria which are currently used to select members of the Peer Outreach Team

Young people come to the team from many different avenues. Some are referred through organisations, others by word of mouth, from contact with young people on external projects and through their colleges or friends. On first enquiry they are asked to supply a CV and then required to attend an interview to assess their suitability to the role.

Finally could I have a copy of any correspondence (emails, letters etc.) about the actions of Einy Shah of the Peer Outreach Team between July 2009 and February 2010. I understand that Section 40 may apply, but I am not interested in personal information, merely any complaints received internally or externally, actions taken, guidance issued etc.

Please find attached information relevant to your request.

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact me, ensuring that you quote the reference at the top of this letter.

Yours sincerely

Paul Robinson

Information Governance Officer

If you are unhappy with the way the GLA has handled your request, you may complain using the GLA's complaints procedure, available at:

http://www.london.gov.uk/contact-us/complaints/gla-complaints

Exemption

s.40 Personal Information

(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if -

either the first or the second condition below is satisfied

(3) The first condition is -

in a case where the information falls within any of the paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of “data” in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise under this Act would contravene -
any of the data protection principles

Information this applies to

The names of all members of the Peer Outreach Team appointed since May 2008.

How the exemption applies to the information

s.40 Personal Information

This information constitutes as personal data which is defined by s.1 (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 to mean data which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.

It is considered that disclosure of this information would contravene the first data protection principle which states that “Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless -

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and

(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.”

It is considered that none of the conditions allow the processing of the information apply in this case as the subjects have not consented to the use of their data for an alternative purpose (namely disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act). It is therefore considered that this would not be a fair and lawful use of the data.

Prejudice test

There is no requirement to consider prejudice for the purposes of this exemption.

Public interest test

This exemption is an absolute exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried out.

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City Hall

The Queen's Walk

London SE1 2AA

Switchboard: 020 7983 4000

Minicom: 020 7983 4458

Web: www.london.gov.uk

Direct telephone: 020 7983 4000 Fax: 020 7983 4674

Our ref: MGLA220210-4692

Your ref:

Date: 17 March 2010

Tom Barry

[email address]