National Attendance Management Forum

Dear Mr Wray

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your request for information, received 8 April
2009 concerning the National Attendance Management Forum.

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, as defined by the Act, subject
to the application of any statutory exemptions. Where consideration is
being given to the application of any exemptions the 20 working day
timescale may be extended under the terms of the Act to a period
considered reasonable depending on the nature and circumstances of your
request. In such cases you will be notified and, where possible, a revised
time-scale will be indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with
your request at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information requested, where the request exceeds the statutory limit.
In such cases you will be informed in writing and the 20 working day
timescale will be suspended until we receive payment from you or your
request is modified and /or reduced. If you chose not to make full payment
or modify your request then the request will remain unanswered.

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public
authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred.

Yours sincerely

Tom Hornshaw
FOI Unit, Administrative Assistant
Corporate Services Department
Email: [email address]
Internal: 7800 2070
External: 0845 113 5000 ext 7800 2070

Our vision: To reduce crime and make people feel safer

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Dear Mr Wray

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your request for information received 08 April 2009.

Your request is one of a number of FOI request from the 'what do they
know' website which appear to be linked and which ask for related
information.

As you may be aware there is a cost limit (the "appropriate level") which
supplies the framework within which we are legally required to respond.
The appropriate level refers to the cost of locating, extracting and
retrieving the information requested and is stated in the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. For West
Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by
the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.

See 'Using the Fess Regulations' on the ICO website:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

As you will see the costs relating to similarly requests for the same or
similar information from a group of individuals who appear to be acting
together can be aggregated. Therefore, one of the three exceptions to the
'applicant blind' nature of FOI requests is the aggregation of costs under
the above fees regulations. See ICO Guidance Note No 6:

Good Practice Guidance No. 6

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

In this respect I would be obliged if you could provide me with the
identification as outlined below, so that I can be sure that we are fully
complying with the legislation.

In order to provide evidence of your identity and address could you please
send copies of at least two official documents which between them provide
sufficient information to prove your name, date of birth, current address
and signature. These should be sent to:

Freedom of Information Unit

West Midlands Police

PO Box 52

Colmore Circus Queensway

Birmingham

B4 6NQ

I would also be obliged if you could let me know the reason for your
request. However, although the reason would be helpful to me, I should
point out that there is no obligation for you to provide me with this
information.

I would like to provide you with what information we hold in respect of
your request and if you supply the requested information then I am sure we
will be able to do so. In the light of the wide remit of your request I am
sure that you can see that this is reasonable.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

West Midlands Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections
1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed
information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information
will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright
owner*s written permission to reproduce any part of the attached
information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Midlands
Police Headquarters, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4
6NQ.

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Dear Mr Wray

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

I am writing in response to your correspondence received 23 May 2009.

Thank you for your clarification of these matters. Once we are in receipt
of Ms McCall*s withdrawal notice we will be able to start processing your
request.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

West Midlands Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections
1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed
information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information
will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright
owner*s written permission to reproduce any part of the attached
information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Midlands
Police Headquarters, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4
6NQ.

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Dear Mr Wray

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Your request for information, received 07 April 2009 concerning the
National Attendance Management Forum has now been considered.

Before I explain the decisions I have made in relation to your request, I
thought that it would be helpful to outline the parameters set out by the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) within which a request for
information can be answered.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to
information held by public authorities. A public authority in receipt of a
request must, if permitted, state under Section 1(a) of the Act, whether
it holds the requested information and, if held, then communicate that
information to the applicant under Section 1(b) of the Act.

The right of access to information is not without exception and is subject
to a number of exemptions which are designed to enable public authorities
to withhold information that is unsuitable for release. Importantly the
Act is designed to place information into the public domain, that is, once
access to information is granted to one person under the Act, it is then
considered public information and must be communicated to any individual
should a request be received.

DECISION

We can confirm that the requested information is held by West Midlands
Police. However, while the majority of the information is attached to this
email I am afraid that I am not required by statute to release all of the
information requested. Please find attached a redacted document. This
letter serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act) for the parts of the document that have not
been released.

REASONS FOR DECISION

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act places two duties on public
authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at s1(1)(a) is to
confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held.
The second duty at s1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been
confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon section 17 of
the Act requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a)
states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states
(if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for
the redacted parts of the attached document. The information is exempt by
virtue of the following exemptions

Section 31 (1) (a) (b) (c)

Section 38 (1) (a) (b)

Section 40 (2) (a) (b)]

These exemptions and explanatory notes are shown here:

http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/foi/p...

In line with the above, I am required to complete a Prejudice Test/Public
Interest Test (PIT) on disclosure for Sections 31 and 38. Please find this
PIT attached (2328_PIT.pdf).

Section 40 (2) is an absolute and class based exemption if to release the
data would breach the third party*s data protection rights. In this case
to confirm to release the personal information would not constitute fair
processing of the data and therefore would breach the first of the
principles within the Data Protection Act 1998. As this exemption is class
based I am not required to identify the harm in disclosure and in this
instance I believe that the right to privacy outweighs any public interest
in release.

Your attention is drawn to your right to request a re-examination of your
case under West Midlands Police review procedure attached. Please note
that such an appeal must be received within six months of the date of this
correspondence.

If you require any further information, then please do not hesitate to
contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

West Midlands Police in complying with their statutory duty under sections
1 and 11 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release the enclosed
information will not breach the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
However, the rights of the copyright owner of the enclosed information
will continue to be protected by law. Applications for the copyright
owner*s written permission to reproduce any part of the attached
information should be addressed to The Force Solicitor, West Midlands
Police Headquarters, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4
6NQ.

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