Dear Sir or Madam

Please detail total expenditure by Aberdeen City Council on Common
Purpose courses for each of the following years: 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 to date.

Please also supply a copy of the invoice for each Common Purpose
course paid for by Aberdeen City Council.

By "Common Purpose", I mean the training organisation of that name:
http://www.commonpurpose.org/home.aspx

Yours faithfully, Mrs Caroline Carter

Dear Mrs Carter,

Freedom of Information Enquiry Reference ENQ5937.

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 received on the 24th June 2008, which has been forwarded to the relevant section[s].

The scheduled date for our response to your request for information is the 25th July 2008.

If you have any enquiries meantime please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

John Ross
FOI Compliance Officer

FoI Enquiries Team
Resources Management (City Solicitor)
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
Aberdeen AB10 1AQ
Tel: 01224 522875/522521
Fax: 01224 638556
email: [Aberdeen City Council request email]

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Dear Mrs Carter

Thank you for your information request of 24th June 2008 under the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). Aberdeen City
Council (ACC) has completed the necessary search for the information
requested.

The following information can be supplied:

Expenditure on Common Purpose

05/06 - £9282.50
06/07 - £4641.25
07/08 - £4964.38

However, this information was not retained before 2005 so, we are
unable to provide you with “expenditure on Common Purpose between 1997
and 2005” as this information is not held by the Council. In order to
comply with its obligations under the terms of the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) the Council must notify the
applicant that the Section 17 exemption of FOISA has been applied in
this case.

Unfortunately, we are unable to satisfy the second part of your request
“ a copy of the invoice for each Common Purpose course paid for by
Aberdeen City Council” because our assessment is that it would cost
thousands of pounds to find all the invoices for an individual supplier.
This would clearly exceed the maximum of £600 allowed by FOISA and as a
result we have to refuse under Section 12 “Excessive Cost” of
FOISA.

The difficulty in tracking down the invoices arises from the fact that
they are not stored centrally in supplier order but instead are stored
within each Service in batch number order. This would require each
Service to manually trawl through all their invoices to select those for
Common Purpose.

We apologise we cannot be of more assistance with your enquiry.

Yours sincerely

John Ross
FOI Compliance Officer

FURTHER INFORMATION

Aberdeen City Council’s Complaints Procedure under the FOISA

An applicant who is dissatisfied with the way in which Aberdeen City
Council has dealt with his/her request for information under section
1(1) of the FOISA regime, may, by virtue of section 20 of the FOISA,
require Aberdeen City Council to review its actions and/or decisions in
relation to that request.

If you wish Aberdeen City Council to review its actions and/or
decisions with respect to your request for information, you should write
to the City Archivist, Resources Management, Aberdeen City Council, Old
Town House, Broad Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1AQ. The City Archivist will
arrange for your application for review to be considered by the Review
Panel. The Review Panel will write to you informing you of its decision
by not later than twenty working days after receipt of your request
requiring that a review be made. By virtue of section 21 of the FOISA,
the Review Panel will also provide you with a statement of its reasons
for arriving at the decision it has made.

Your request for review should reach Aberdeen City Council by no later
than 17th September 2008. Your request for review must be in writing
(or in another form which has some permanency and is capable of being
used for subsequent reference i.e. audio/video tape recording). You
must state your name and address for correspondence. You must also give
details of the information which you originally requested from Aberdeen
City Council, and must state the reasons why you are dissatisfied with
the way in which your application for information has been dealt with.

Your Right to Complain to the Scottish Information Commissioner

By virtue of Section 47 of the FOISA, a person who is dissatisfied with
a Notice issued by Aberdeen City Council under Section 21 of the FOISA,
may apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner, for a decision as to
whether, in any respect specified in that application, the request for
information under section 1(1) of the FOISA, has been dealt with by
Aberdeen City Council in accordance with Part 1 of the FOISA.

An application to the Scottish Information Commissioner must be made in
writing (or in another form having some permanency ie a video/tape
recording) within six months of receipt of a section 21 Notice by the
applicant. An applicant must state his/her name and address. An
applicant must also specify: -

- the request for information to which the requirement for review by
Aberdeen City Council relate;
- the matter which gives rise to the applicant’s dissatisfaction
pertaining to the applicants request for review;
- the matter which gives rise to the applicant’s dissatisfaction
pertaining to the decision given in the section 21 Notice.

The Scottish Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St
Andrews, Fife, KY16 9BS
(Telephone - 01334 464610; Fax - 01334 464611; Email -
[email address]
<mailto:[email address]> )

FoI Enquiries Team
Resources Management (City Solicitor)
Aberdeen City Council
Town House
Broad Street
Aberdeen AB10 1AQ
Tel: 01224 522875/522521
Fax: 01224 638556
email: [Aberdeen City Council request email]

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