Alyson Gerner .

Dear Mr Hutton

Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0046164

Thank you.

Central Allocation Team

Public Communications Team

Tel: 0870 0002288
www.education.gov.uk

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Dear Mr Hutton,
Thank you for your request for information received on 22 June 2010. The
Department for Education (DfE) was established 12 May 2010; therefore,
part of this response may be based on information held by its predecessor,
the Department for Children Schools and Families.

You requested the following in relation to Alyson Gerner, a Deputy
Director in the Department and Common Purpose:

1. Invoices received from Common Purpose during the last three financial
years.
2. E-Mails between Alyson Gerner and Common Purpose during the last year.

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
("the Act").

For part 1 of your request, information recorded on the Department's
system for payments to Common Purpose for the last three financial years
are set out below:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Year |Course |Total Cost |
|----------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------|
|2007-08 |Navigator Programme for the Fast Stream |-L-3025.00 |
|----------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------|
|2008-09 |Development associated with Academies |-L-1175.00 |
|----------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------|
|2009-10 |Professional Development* |-L-4225.00 |
| |-----------------------------------------------+-------------|
| |Professional Development** |-L- 250.00 |
| |-----------------------------------------------+-------------|
| |Development Programme associated with Academies|-L-2429.38 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

* This is the only payment associated with Alyson Gerner and another
Departmental official on the same course. The total cost reflects a deal
negotiated with Common Purchase where the Department was charged at full
price for one course and half price for the other. The cost of the
programme was normally around -L-3100 for per person.

** This payment was for Alyson Gerner only.

The invoice associated with learning and development provided to Alyson
Gerner by Common Purpose are starred in the table and attached. However,
to comply with the rest of this part of the request - providing copies of
the invoices received from Common Purpose for the other figures stated in
the above table - the Department estimates that the cost of complying with
your request would exceed the cost threshold applicable to central
Government. This is -L-600 and represents the estimated cost of one person
spending 3 1/2 working days locating, retrieving and extracting the
information from the Department's financial legacy system.

We have considered ways in which your request might be narrowed or limited
in order to reduce the cost of complying with it. However, due to the
nature of your request and the way in which the information is now held
and was held on legacy systems, the Department would be unable to provide
the information you have requested without exceeding the cost limit.

For part 2 of your request, to comply with the release of the information
in an electronic format, I am sending you emails separately with the
information due to the large size of the attachments. Please note that
each email thread that we hold, some of which are repeated, is separated,
and any attachment(s) (which are not confidential) associated with an
email are produced directly below it. In addition, most of other names
within the email threads have been removed under the personal data
exemptions of the Freedom of Information Act (Section 40).

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner's Office.
Yours sincerely,

Colman Ambrose
PEOPLE AND CHANGE GROUP
[email address]
[1]www.education.gov.uk

Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2010/0046164.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

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1. http://www.education.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Hutton

As mentioned in the letter to you, please see the attached email
threads between Alyson Gerner and Common Purpose.

Please note that due to the scanning process, read in reverse order.

This is the first of three.

Regards

Colman Ambrose
People and Change Division
[1][email address]

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Second of three.

Please note that due to the scanning process, read in reverse order.

Regards

Colman Ambrose
People and Change Division
[1][email address]

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Third of three.

Please note that due to the scanning process, read in reverse order.

Regards

Colman Ambrose
People and Change Division
[1][email address]

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]