Minutes and the advice submitted to Ministers by the ACL

Thank you for your email. I have now left DCMS to go on secondment - this
inbox is not being monitored. Please redirect your query to:

Fran Love ([email address]) on British Library and legal
deposit issues;

Abbi Smith ([Advisory Council on Libraries request email]) on PLR or public
library/archive issues.

Regards,

Craig

show quoted sections

Ref: 130637

Dear Ms Wingate-Gray,

I refer to your request of 9th December 2009 for detailed minutes of ACL
meetings and ACL advice submitted to Ministers.

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
('the Act'). The Act gives you the right to know whether we hold the
information specified in your request and, if that is the case, to have
that information communicated to you, subject to the provisions of the
Act.

We do hold information that falls within the scope of your request.
However, the Department considers some of the information may be exempt
from disclosure under Section 35 (1) (a) (Formulation of Government
Policy) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Under the Act, we need to consider whether the balance of the public
interest lies in our providing you with the information or in maintaining
the exemption and withholding the information.

By virtue of section 10(3), where public authorities have to consider the
balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have
to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the
circumstances. The DCMS has not yet reached a decision on the balance of
interest. Due to the need to consider, in all the circumstances of the
case, where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to the
information that you have requested, the Department will not be able to
respond to your request in full within 20 working days. I realise the
need for receiving information not covered by the s.35 exemption as soon
as possible, I apologise for this delay and hope to have this resolved
shortly.

If you need any help or advice or have any questions about this, please
contact me quoting the reference number in any communications.

Yours sincerely,

Charlotte Morris

Freedom of Information Officer
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH
[1][email address]

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Wingate-Gray,

Further to my colleagues email to you of 07 January 2010 regarding an
extension to your case, I am writing to inform you that the Department is
still to reach a decision over the where the public interest lies
regarding some aspects of the information you have requested.

We hope to be able to provide a substantive response to you within the
near future, and will certainly write to you again by 08 March 2010 at the
latest.

Regards,

Stephen Bell
Freedom of Information Team

Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Department for Culture, Media and Sport |2-4 Cockspur Street |London |SW1Y
5DH
* [1][email address] |' 020 7211 2304|;
[2]www.culture.gov.uk
DCMS aims to improve the quality of life for all through cultural and
sporting activities, to support the pursuit of excellence and to champion
the tourism, creative and leisure industries.

show quoted sections

FoI ref: 130637

Dear Ms Wingate-Gray,

Firstly I apologise for the delay in responding to your email and the
length of time it has taken to fully respond to your request.

Please note that due to the volume of documents we are unfortunately
unable to attach these to the email. Can you advise me of your address and
I will post these documents to you. I have copied below the response that
you will receive with the documents.

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of 9 December 2009
requesting:

1. The detailed minutes of all Advisory Council on Libraries (ACL)
meetings held between 2000 and 2009

2. The ACL advice submitted to Ministers during 2000 to 2009

Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

Question 1

We are pleased to supply you with all the ACL minutes from 2000 to 2009
that we hold. These are all enclosed.

The detailed minutes for the last ACL meeting, which was held on 21
October 2009, have not yet been approved; this is due to happen at the
next ACL meeting. However you can find a summary of these minutes at the
below website:

[1]http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/lib...

We consider a small amount of information in the February 2009 minutes
exempt under section 36 (b) (i) (the free and frank provision of advice)
of the Act. The use of this exemption requires the reasonable opinion of a
qualified person that certain forms of adverse effect would, or would be
likely, to follow from disclosure. The Minister, as the Department's
qualified person, has now given her opinion that section 36 (b) (i)
applies to this information.
Additionally due to section 36 (b) (i) being a qualified exemption we have
to assess whether it is in the public interest to withhold or release the
information. The arguments for and against the release are detailed
below.
Section 36 (b) (i) (the free and frank provision of advice) public
interest test

The information in question consists of advice the ACL intended to give to
the Secretary of State. In favour of disclosure we considered the public
interest in being able to assess the quality of advice being given to
ministers and who the advice is supplied by.

Against those public interest factors we considered that disclosure of the
opinion of the ACL could cause the Council to be less candid in their
views and would be less likely to properly record such advice in the
future. This would weaken the quality of advice being provided and would
therefore not be in the public interest.

After careful consideration of the competing interests, we concluded that
the public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption in section 36
(b) (i) of the Act continues to outweigh that in favour of disclosure.
Accordingly, we must continue to withhold the information.

Please note that certain names have been redacted as under section 40(2)
(Personal Information) of the Act there is an exemption for the disclosure
of personal information. This exemption is closely tied to the principles
of the Data Protection Act 1998. A request for information on a third
party enables the section 40(2) exemption which is an absolute exemption
where disclosure would breach any of the eight Data Protection Principles
in the Data Protection Act.

Question 2

After searching our records we can confirm that DCMS holds one document of
advice submitted to a Minister, this has been enclosed. We were unable to
locate any of the other advice referred to in the minutes.

Additionally the advice submitted in June 2008 is available at our
website:

[2]http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publica...

If you require any further assistance do not hesitate in contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Charlotte Morris

Freedom of Information Officer
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH
020 7211 6165
[3][email address]

If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our response to your request
for information and/or wish to appeal against information being withheld
from you please send full details within two calendar months of the date
of this letter to:

FOI Central Team,
Public Engagement and Recognition Unit
Department for Culture Media and Sport,
2-4 Cockspur Street, London,
SW1Y 5DH

You have the right to ask the Information Commissioner (ICO) to
investigate any aspect of your complaint. Please note that the ICO is
likely to expect internal complaints procedures to have been exhausted
before beginning his investigation.

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Wingate-Gray,

Thank you for supplying an address, I can confirm that these will go out in the post later today or tomorrow morning.

Kind regards,

Charlotte Morris

show quoted sections