Teachers who are members of political Parties.

Dear Sir or Madam,

By letter of 30 September 2009, The Secretary of State Ed Balls
appointed Maurice Smith to enquire into the "promotion of racism in
schools". Part of the review is aimed at determining whether
members of the British National Party (BNP) should be allowed to
work as teachers or in the wider school workforce.

Please provide the following information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I am referring to education.

1. Has your authority ever found a member of the BNP or any other
political Party guilty of a disciplinary offence related to their
Party membership whilst teaching in the last three years? If so
please give information as to when and how many.
2. Has any parent complained to you regarding the Party membership
of any employee or the expression of political views within School
classrooms under your authority during the last three years?
3. What safeguards do you currently have in place to prevent
members of any political Party promoting their views within
Schools?

Mark Walker
Solidarity Trade Union
www.solidaritytradeunion.org

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your response is overdue.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Walker

Dear Sir

I am writing to request an internal review of the Belfast Education
and Library Board’s handling of my FOI request submitted on 13th
Oct 2009. The statutory 20 working days has now passed. The normal
20 working day limit can be extended under section 10(3) if a
qualified exemption is engaged and additional time is required to
consider the public interest. In order to extend the deadline in
accordance with section 10(3) the authority must inform the
applicant of this fact within the 20 working day deadline and
provide him/her with a revised response deadline “that is
reasonable in the circumstances”. I have not been informed of the
need for any extension and my complaint has not been answered.

I believe that section 10(1) of the FOI Act has been breached,
given that no letter was sent extending the deadline under Section
10(3).

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:

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

Yours sincerely

Mark Walker
Solidarity Trade Union
www.solidaritytradeunion.org

Dear Gordon Jackson,

I no longer require an Internal Review.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Walker