Gagging Orders in Secret Family Courts

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000, of which we acknowledge receipt.

Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the Act.

Kind regards

Miriam Townsend, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 533219 [email address]

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your request for information, please find below our reply:

a. This has not been done by this local authority in the last ten years.

b. Since we have not applied for any such order in the last ten years, the answer is nothing.

c. Any application of this type would have to be authorised by the Corporate Director of the Children and Young People's Service or by the Assistant Director (Children's Social Care). The application form would be signed in the name of the Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services).

d. Since we have not obtained an order of this type, the answer to this question is also none in the last ten years.

e. Decisions are taken by the Corporate Director of the Children and Young People's Service or by the Assistant Director (Children's Social Care), who would obtain legal advice from Legal and Democratic Services, and possibly also from external counsel, before deciding to proceed.

f. Councillors are not generally involved in decision-making in relation to individual cases concerning children.

Yours sincerely

Miriam Townsend, for

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000, of which we acknowledge receipt.

Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to provide a response as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days, as required by the Act.

Kind regards

Miriam Townsend, for

Data Management Officer
North Yorkshire County Council
01609 780780 extn 3219
[email address]

Access your county council services online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.northyorks.gov.uk.

WARNING

Any opinions or statements expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of North Yorkshire County Council.

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you receive this in error, please do not disclose any information to anyone, notify the sender at the above address and then destroy all copies.

North Yorkshire County Council’s computer systems and communications may be monitored to ensure effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. All GCSX traffic may be subject to recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Although we have endeavoured to ensure that this e-mail and any attachments are free from any virus we would advise you to take any necessary steps to ensure that they are actually virus free.

If you receive an automatic response stating that the recipient is away from the office and you wish to request information under either the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act or the Environmental Information Regulations please forward your request by e-mail to the Data Management Team ([North Yorkshire County Council request email]) who will process your request.

North Yorkshire County Council.

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your subsequent request for information, dated 20 October
2009, asking North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) to confirm whether it
has ever applied for a gagging order.

I would like to inform you that there has only been one case involving
a gagging order which involved NYCC, but from the readily available
information, we cannot determine whether the application for the order
was made by NYCC or another party to the proceedings. The case took
place in the 1990s. Therefore NYCC may hold the information you request
however, from our preliminary assessment we estimate that compliance
with your request would exceed 18 hours, the appropriate costs limit,
under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In order for
us to comply with your request, we would have to search over 500 cases
files for the relevant information. Consequently, the large amount of
work involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the
amount to which we are legally required to respond, because the cost of
locating, retrieving and extracting the information, exceeds the
"appropriate level" as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and
Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

Additionally, in relation to question b, NYCC does not possess
information on costs of gagging order injunctions, because at that time,
we were not time costing individual files.

I attach a copy of our charging regime and our appeals process.

Yours sincerely

Isabel Esteves
Education and Employment Lawyer

for Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

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20/10/2009 23:18 >>>
Dear Miriam Townsend,

Thank you for your reply and confirming that you have not applied
for any in the last ten years.

Can you please confirm if you have ever applied.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Docherty

show quoted sections

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your subsequent request for information, dated 20 October
2009, asking North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) to confirm whether it
has ever applied for a gagging order.

I would like to inform you that there has only been one case involving
a gagging order which involved NYCC, but from the readily available
information, we cannot determine whether the application for the order
was made by NYCC or another party to the proceedings. The case took
place in the 1990s. Therefore NYCC may hold the information you request
however, from our preliminary assessment we estimate that compliance
with your request would exceed 18 hours, the appropriate costs limit,
under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In order for
us to comply with your request, we would have to search over 500 cases
files for the relevant information. Consequently, the large amount of
work involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the
amount to which we are legally required to respond, because the cost of
locating, retrieving and extracting the information, exceeds the
"appropriate level" as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and
Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

Additionally, in relation to question b, NYCC does not possess
information on costs of gagging order injunctions, because at that time,
we were not time costing individual files.

I attach a copy of our charging regime and our appeals process.

Yours sincerely

Isabel Esteves
Education and Employment Lawyer

for Assistant Chief Executive (Legal and Democratic Services)

show quoted sections

20/10/2009 23:18 >>>
Dear Miriam Townsend,

Thank you for your reply and confirming that you have not applied
for any in the last ten years.

Can you please confirm if you have ever applied.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Docherty

show quoted sections