Discussion on the public interest extension on the request for the training materials for the COINS database

Lisa Evans made this Freedom of Information request to Her Majesty’s Treasury

The request was successful.

From: Lisa Evans

16 March 2010

Dear Her Majesty's Treasury,

I recently made a request for the the training materials for the
COINS database:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/tr...

This request has been delayed with a public interest extension.

I would like to request all the:

- emails discussing this public interest extension internally.
- minutes of meetings discussing this public interest extension.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

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From: Enquiries, CEU

19 March 2010

Dear Ms Evans,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. I write to confirm receipt of your request and to let you know that it is receiving attention. If you have any enquiries regarding your request do not hesitate to contact us.

Adam Goodwin
Correspondence and Enquiry Unit

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From: responses, FOI

31 March 2010

Attachment foi eva.pdf
412K Download View as HTML

Please find attached our response to your recent enquiry.

Paul Morran | Information Rights Unit | 2/SW, 1 Horse Guards Road, SW1A 2HQ

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

<<foi-eva.pdf>>

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From: Lisa Evans

1 April 2010

Dear responses, FOI,

Thank you for the reply Paul, I appreciate the extra details of why
the screenshots were removed.

As you state:

"she [the Team Leader] saw the proposed disclosure [the COINS
training materials], she immediately raised concerns that the
screenshots could infringe intellectual property rights
[http://www.objectgroup.org/coins-contrac...

I would appreciate it if you could add more detail about her exact
concerns and if they were checked with the COINS supplier.

Yours sincerely,

Lisa Evans

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Lisa Evans left an annotation ( 1 April 2010)

The link in the letter above should be

http://www.objectgroup.org/coins-contrac...

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From: responses, FOI

8 April 2010

Lisa

The team leader did not specify. A long-running contractual dispute has only recently been resolved and I guess she was generally nervous of upsetting the applecart. IPR is of course a very vexed issue in the software world generally. We did contact the supplier, who was of the view that disclosure of the screenshots would constitute a breach of IPR.

Paul

Paul Morran | Information Rights Unit | 2/SW, 1 Horse Guards Road, SW1A 2HQ

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Richard Greenhill left an annotation ( 3 June 2010)

It's not lawful for the supplier to take a view on the deparment's behalf, or for the department to be influenced by concerns that are not relevant to FOI; it's for the department itself to judge objectively whether the statutory exemptions apply when considering how to respond.

Nor is it clear why requesting the content of emails is not a valid FOI request; it is clearly implied that this is a request for the information contained within the emails.

The informal follow-up email from HMT suggests a genuine intention to be helpful, but ultimately this cannot be achieved by sidestepping the statutory obligations under mistaken or misleading interpretations of the act.

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From: Lisa Evans

6 December 2010

Dear responses, FOI,

Apologies, after reading the full notes, I realise that there are
only screen shots redacted, and three instances of text. As I'm not
concerned about the screen shots and the redacted text was replaced
with a good alternative, I'm with drawing this internal review.
Sorry for inconvenience .

Yours sincerely,

Lisa Evans

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From: responses, FOI

6 December 2010

Thanks for confirming Lisa.

Paul Morran | Information Rights Unit | 2/SW, 1 Horse Guards Road, SW1A 2HQ

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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