Information Governance
Coventry City Council
PO Box 15
Council House
John Browne
Coventry
CV1 5RR
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
(sent via email)
www.coventry.gov.uk
Please contact Information Governance
Direct line 024 7683 3323
xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
28 June 2018
Dear Sir/Madam
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Request ID: REQ04366 (Review of REQ04278)
Thank you for your request for a review into the response provided to your Freedom of
Information request relating to Hackney Carriage Licences and convictions dated the 13
June 2018.
Following our initial response you requested:
I understand that my request may be time consuming so rather than give me any
particular breakdown of any convictions and what licence they hold can you
please provide me the total number of declared convictions as per the original
request that the council have immediate access to that is held on file.
Having reviewed our original response and following conversations with the relevant
service area we would advise that while other local authorities may keep detailed lists of
offences committed by licence holders, Coventry City Council does not. This is because
we have no need to list or hold data in this way to make a decision to grant a licence. An
individual criminal record check is used for the purpose it is intended for (to establish if
someone is ‘fit and proper’ to obtain a licence). This is then destroyed within a 6 month
period of obtaining such a check.
Some of this information may be retained on our automated systems and in the driver’s
personal paper file, such information being retained for a period of 7 years after which it
is securely destroyed in line with the Council’s retention policy.
It has therefore been established that criminal record history is not kept in one place nor
in a reportable format, such as a spread sheet or in a separate accessible file and to
locate, retrieve and collate the information being requested would involve accessing
each individual record and automated system, as per our original response.
We are therefore of the opinion that the Section 12 fees notice has been engaged
correctly and are upholding our original decision and will not be providing the information.
The supply of information in response to a Freedom of Information request does not
confer an automatic right to re-use the information. You can use any information supplied
for the purposes of private study and non-commercial research without requiring further
permission. Similarly, information supplied can also be re-used for the purposes of news
reporting. An exception to this is photographs. Please contact us if you wish to use the
information for any other purpose.
Should you wish to make any further requests for information, you may find what you are
looking for is already published on the Council’s web site and in particular its FOI/EIR
Disclosure log, Council's Publication Scheme, Open Data and Facts about Coventry.
If you are still unhappy with the outcome of our review, you can write to the Information
Commissioner, who can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe
House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF or email xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Please remember to quote the reference number above in your response.
Yours faithfully
Sue Gilbert
Information Governance Officer
2