This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Reported unactioned drug use in a Glasgow Secondary School'.

 
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