Information Requests Relating to Openness and Transparency

Dear Mr Taylor,

Thank you for your email requests of 19 Feb 09 made under the Freedom of
Information Act. For ease of reference I repeat your requests below.

1. Was there a Full Police Authority Meeting on the 14th of January
2009? If there was such a meeting could you please let me know why it
was held and why it is not included on the list of meetings published
on the Authority's website. I would like to request the release of the
agenda, reports and minutes of the meeting. I would like to suggest
they are made available on the Authority's website.

2. I understand there were three requests made by members of the
public to ask questions or make statements at the 18th of February
2009 Full Police Authority Meeting. Could you please release those
requests to speak, in full, along with the time they were received.

3. The chairman of the Police Authority told me on the 7th of January
that he was going to seek an expert opinion on the interpretation of
the standing orders with respect to public speaking at meetings of the
Authority. Did he seek this opinion from (or via) officers of the
Authority? If so, could you please release the opinion he was given?

4. Could you please release a copy of the recently distributed Local
Policing Summary. I would like to suggest this be made available (or
linked to) from the Authority's website.

There was a meeting of the full Police Authority on 14th January 2009
immediately prior to the scheduled meeting of the Police Authority’s
Finance and Resources Committee. The full Police Authority meeting, which
had been arranged at short notice, had only one item on its agenda (copy
enclosed) which, because of its commercial sensitivity, was an exempt item
under the Local Government Act 1974. However, the fact that this meeting
was inserted into the Authority’s schedule, even though its business was
exempt, should have been publicised and the agenda is being placed on the
web site. Details of the paper taken by the Authority and the minutes of
the Authority’s deliberations are not disclosable and will not be made
public.

There were in fact four questions by members of the public in February 2009
which were tabled at the Police Authority meetings on 13 and 18 February
2009. I have assumed that you would be interested in seeing all such
questions and I attach copies of the questions as posed and the Police
Authority’s responses. I have not released the letters from the
individuals seeking to pose questions to the Authority as they all contain
information personal to those individuals.

With regard to your third query, I understand that the Chairman spoke with
the then Chief Executive whose view echoed that of the Chairman’s; that the
Standing Order is quite clear. However, we have changed the wording on
all agendas to publicise the opportunity available for members of the
public to speak or ask questions of the Authority and there is a link on
the news section of the web site.

All six versions of the Local Policing Summaries were made available on the
Police Authority’s web site for a period of around 2 months. They were
removed after the closing date for responses to the anti-social behaviour
surveys contained in the summaries. The summaries will be posted on the
community consultation page of the web site, with a caveat that some of the
details contained in them may have become dated with the passage of time,
e.g. officers’ names and contact details do change from time to time.

I am enclosing a copy of the Cambridge City version of the Local Policing
Summary as you requested. However, I hope that you received a copy via the
mailing we arranged with the Royal Mail which was for the summaries to be
delivered to every household in the Authority’s area.

Yours Sincerely

RE Toland

Policy and Performance Manager
Cambridgeshire Police Authority
Hinchingbrooke Park
Huntingdon
PE29 6NP
Tel: 01480 425999
Fax: 01480 425748
[mobile number]
Mobex: 7111033

(See attached file: PA 14.01.09 - Agenda Final Version.doc)(See attached
file: Questions from MOPs to PA 13 and 18 Feb 09.doc)(See attached file:
Policing Cambridge final.pdf)

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