Annemarie O’Donnell LLB DipLP
Executive Director – Corporate Services
Glasgow City Council
City Chambers
George
Square
Glasgow G2 1DU
Phone 0141 287 4522
Fax No 0141 287 3627
Our ref: RQST4237385/AMOD/SH
Your ref:
Date: 5 April 2013
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Hughes
REQUEST FOR REVIEW UNDER THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT
2002 (“THE ACT”)
I refer to your email dated 6 March 2013 which I am treating as a formal request for review of
Glasgow City Council's ("the Council's") response dated 1 March 2013 to your initial request
for information dated 30 January 2013 as clarified by your email of 31 January 2013.
You have requested a review on the basis that you are dissatisfied with the Council's
response.
YOUR REQUEST
Your clarified request for information was as follows:
"Thank you for your reply. Allow me to be a little more specific.
As for the issue with the gas supply: the school was receiving additional gas
inspections from qualified gas engineers supplied by Amey due to concerns about
gas leaks and the janitors were issued with hand-held monitors to scan the school for
gas prior to staff and pupils entering the building each morning following a very
serious incident which caused the school to remain closed for the day.
Let us deal with Amey first:
Can you confirm that St. Margaret Mary's Secondary School, Glasgow was closed for
a day due to a very serious and dangerous gas leak discovered prior to the school
opening that morning?
Can you confirm that Network Gas sent two engineers to assist Amey staff in
rectifying the problem and to ensure the integrity of the gas system and the safety of
the building?
Can you confirm that Strathclyde Fire Service attended the incident?
Can you confirm that a meeting took place in the school later that same day involving
the senior staff of the school, senior staff of Amey and senior council officials to
discuss this problem?
Can you confirm that the school, since opening in 2002, had a history of gas leaks?
Can you confirm that the janitors in the school were supplied with hand-held gas
detectors to monitor gas levels throughout the school?
Can you confirm that a suspicion that the gas leaks, following various investigative
measures, were believed to be deliberate and the work of an individual employee at
the school?
Can you confirm that a hidden camera was placed in a Home Economics classroom
early in 2006 as a means to catch the suspected culprit?
Can you confirm that Ronnie O'Connor, then Director of Education, and the Regional
Director of Amey agreed with a concerned Amey employee that a hidden camera
should be used to prevent a potential tragedy happening?
Can you confirm that the camera was supplied, fitted and then removed by
Scotshield, the company responsible for the CCTV coverage in Glasgow Schools?
Can you confirm that the Scotshield engineer who put the camera in place was NOT
the individual at the time reported to have been "suspended" in the Glasgow press?
Can you confirm the the Scotshield engineer was not suspended because he was
instructed by his own employers to install the camera, following a request to do so by
Amey?
I shall be making enquiries of Community Police officers at Aikenhead Road Police
Station to confirm dates of certain events and shall return to the issue of widespread
drug use in the school unless, of course, you feel the information requested is now
sufficient to be dealt with as a FOI Request."
Please note that we consider the subject of your request to be environmental information in
accordance with Regulation 2 of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
("the EIRs"). On this basis we consider your request to be exempt under section 39(2) of the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and we are instead treating it as a request under
the EIRs.
You will be aware that under Regulation 7 of the EIRs a Scottish public authority may extend
the initial 20 working day period for compliance by up to a further 20 working days, if the
volume and complexity of the information makes it impracticable for the Authority either to
comply with the request within the earlier period or to make a decision to refuse to do so.
I hereby write to inform you that due to the historical nature and the volume of the information
that you have requested, it has been necessary to undertake a lengthy manual check through
the Council’s archive in order to collate the relevant data and this process will take up to a
further 20 days to complete.
Please be advised that you will receive a full response to your request for review no later than
3 May 2013.
Yours sincerely
ANNEMARIE O’DONNELL
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – CORPORATE SERVICES