University of Central Lancashire

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4th February 2010

Case Reference Number IRQ0294424

Dear Mr Davis

Request for Information

Thank you for your correspondence dated 4 February 2010 (University of
Central Lancashire).

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  We will respond by 4 March 2010 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

If you wish to add further information or evidence to your case please
reply to this email, being careful not to amend the information in the
‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information is added
directly to your case. However, please be aware that this is an automated
process; the information will not be read by a member of our staff until
your case is allocated to a request handler

Yours sincerely

Iman Elmehdawy

Assistant Internal Compliance Manager

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

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24th February 2010

Case Reference Number IRQ0294424

Dear Mr Davis

I write with reference to your request for information dated 4 February
2010.  As you are aware we have dealt with your request under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.

Request

How much did you pay 11KBW and or Anya Proops for legal advice
associated with the Tribunal hearing involving the University of
Central Lancashire. Please provide me with copies of any invoices
you hold.

Information held

Please find attached two invoices for counsels advice obtained for this
particular tribunal hearing.  The total cost of this advice was
£10714.55.

Information withheld

The breakdown of the costs has been redacted from the attached invoices. 
.  This information is exempt under Section 43 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  This states that:

Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this act would
be likely or likely to, prejudice the commercial interest of any person
(including the public authority).

This is not an absolute exemption and requires that we carry out a public
interest test maintaining the exemption.  In this particular case we
consider that the factors in favour of disclosing this information are:

o Promoting accountability and transparency in the spending of public
money.

Factors for maintaining the exemption and withholding the information are:

o Disclosing the breakdown of costs would be likely to prejudice our
commercial interests in that we are at present actively seeking to
instruct Counsel from other chambers. Revealing the rates that we have
agreed to pay for this particular legal advice would prejudice our
ability to negotiate rates from other chambers.
o Without the ability to negotiate rates from other chambers may mean
having to pay a higher rate and thus a higher spend of public money.

Therefore, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in
maintaining the exemption for the breakdown of fees outweighs the public
interest in disclosing the information.

I hope the information that has been provided to you is of interest and
assistance.  However, if you are dissatisfied with the response you have
received and wish to request a review of our decision or make a complaint
about how your request has been handled you should write to the Internal
Compliance Team at the address below or e-mail
[2][email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation.  To make such an application, please write
to the Case Reception Team, at the address below or visit the
‘Complaints’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information
Act or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.

 

A copy of our review procedure is attached.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

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2. mailto:[email address]

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24th February 2010

Case Reference Number RCC0298265

Dear Mr Davis

Thank you for your correspondence dated 24 February 2010.

This correspondence will now be treated as a request for review of your
recent request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will respond by 24 March 2010 which is 20 working days from the day
after we received your recent correspondence.  This is in accordance with
our internal review procedures.

If you wish to add further information to your request please reply to
this email, being careful not to amend the information in the
‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information is added
directly to your case.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Yours sincerely

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

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Dear Mr Davis,

Internal Review Case Reference Number RCC0298265

Your request for an internal review of the handling of your information
request has been passed to me to undertake.  I have carefully considered
all the relevant information, including your request, your request for
review and the information withheld from you.  I have reached the
following findings.

In our response to your request for the invoices held by the ICO in
relation to the University of Central Lancashire Tribunal case we withheld
the breakdown of the figures in the invoices but disclosed the global
total.   I have reconsidered the breakdown of the figures and have
decided that we did incorrectly apply the exemption under section 43(2)
‘commercial interests’ to some of the detailed figures.    

The refusal notice correctly indentified the factor that disclosure would
be likely to prejudice our ability to negotiate rates with other chambers
and the ICO is actively seeking to instruct Counsel from other chambers. 
However, this factor does not apply to all the figures in the breakdown as
only certain figures will reveal the rates we pay.

The following figures can therefore be disclosed to you:

- 13 May 2009 – fees and VAT

- 07 July 2009 – fees and VAT

- 25 October 2009 – fees and VAT

- 20 November 2009 – fees and VAT

- 05 November 2009 – expense claim only - fees and VAT

- TOTAL fees,VAT and TOTAL from each invoice

The remaining figures were correctly withheld under the section 43(2) as
disclosure would be likely to prejudice the ICO’s commercial interests
for the reasons stated above.   Having reconsidered the public interest
test I have found that the outcome favours maintaining the exemption.  I
have considered the public interest in openness and transparency in the
spending of public money and the fact that legal costs associated with
defending ICO decisions are a significant part of the ICO FOI budget. 
These factors are outweighed by those in favour of maintaining the
exemption because of the timing of the request and the impact of
disclosure on the ICO’s active negotiations.  This information was
therefore correctly withheld.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review you may make a
section 50 complaint to the ICO. 

How to complain

Information on how to complain is available on the ICO website at:

[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...  

By post: If your supporting evidence is in hard copy, you can fill in the
Word version of our complaint form, print it out and post it to us with
your supporting evidence. A printable Freedom of Information Act
complaints form is available from the ICO website. Please send to:

Case Reception Unit

Customer Service Team

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

By email: If all your supporting evidence is available electronically, you
can fill in our online complaint form. Important: information included in
the form, and any supporting evidence will be sent to us by email.

Yours sincerely

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner/ Head of FOI Policy

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

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2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

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24th March 2010

Case Reference Number RCC0298265

Dear Mr Davis

Further to Steve Woods e-mail yesterday please find attached a new version
of the invoices you requested.  There is further information being
provided to you as a result of the internal review as communicated in
Steve Wood’s correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

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