Common Purpose

Dear Ms Carter,

BTP acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request as below.
We will respond in due course.

Best regards,

Vanessa Osborne
DP and FOI Co-ordinator

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Dear Mrs Carter,

I write in connection with your request for information, asking for the
following information:

1. Copies of all email traffic between Ellie Bird and Common Purpose from
January 2008 to date?

Please note that I am not interested in personal emails between Ms Bird
and Common Purpose only e-mails and attachments that relate to the
training of BTP staff, which I understand Ms Bird deals with.

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your request.
Your request has been considered and as directed in Section 1 of the
Freedom of Information Act, we can confirm that we do hold the information
requested. Please find two emails attached that relate to training of BTP
staff. We have decided to remove some personally identifying data under
the exemptions listed below.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the British
Transport Police, when refusing to provide information, to provide the
applicant with a notice which:

(a) states that fact,

(b) specifies the exemption(s) in question, and

(c) states (if not otherwise apparent) why the exemption applies.

The exemptions applicable to the information requested are:

Section 38 - Health and Safety

Section 40(2) - Personal Information

These exemptions apply for the following reasons:

o Section 38: The information, if released, may be likely to endanger
the mental health of an individual

o Section 40(2): Some of the information requested is third party data
and disclosure would breach the Data Protection principles.

Public Interest Test

Both exemptions used here are qualified and therefore a consideration of
the public interest must be made when examining whether to disclose
information or not. The public interest is defined as what is in the best
interests of the public, not what may be of interest to the public. In
order to make a judgement about the public interest considerations for
this request I have drawn up a list both for and against disclosure:-

In Favour of Disclosure:

. Transparency and accountability - openness in regard to police
policy and accountability of those in positions of responsibility. This
also applies to spending of public funds and use of resources.

In Favour of Non-Disclosure:

. Members of staff do not have an expectation of their personal
information being used in a manner other than that for which it was given
(i.e for records kept by their employer) and where it would not be
normally disclosed in the line of their duties.

. Disclosure of personal information of staff working for third
parties, especially where the third party is not a public body and
therefore does not have to comply with Freedom of Information law, would
also breach Data Protection principles.

. A person would not expect their name to be released into the
public domain because they have attended a training course. Any undue
public attention following disclosure could adversely affect the mental
health of an individual.

It is therefore considered for the reasons outlined above that the public
interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in
disclosing it.

For further information and guidance, please see the following document
provided by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO):

[1]http://www.btp.police.uk/pdf/FOI_publica...

British Transport Police provides you the right to request a
re-examination of your case under its review procedure. If you decide to
request such a review and having followed British Transport Police's full
process you are still dissatisfied, then you have the right to direct your
comments to the Information Commissioner ([2]www.ico.gov.uk) who will give
it consideration.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
British Transport Police.

Yours sincerely,

Elliot Harry

Freedom of Information Officer

Information Standards Unit

British Transport Police

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