Communication between Education department and transport department

The request was refused by Leicestershire County Council.

Dear Leicestershire County Council,

With regard to the recent proposed changes to school transport arrangements in the county. Reference link here: http://www.leics.gov.uk/school_transport...

Please can you supply copies of all communications about the consultation and the proposals that has been sent between the council department responsible for education and the council department responsible for transport.

Please include (but not limit to) written letters and emails. Please supply information dated after 1st Jan 2013 until present day.

Yours faithfully,

David Brancher

Leicestershire County Council

Dave Brancher

[FOI #201701 email]

13/03/2014

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

FOI Request Number :5106
Description :School Transport Communication

Dear Dave Brancher,

Thank you for your request for information received on 12/03/2014.

Your request is being considered and you will receive the information within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third party.

If appropriate, the information may be provided in paper copy, normal font size. If you require alternative formats, e.g. language, audio, large print, etc. then please let me know.

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact me on 0116 305 5284 or [Leicestershire County Council request email], quoting the FOI Request Number.

For independent advice, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113 www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Rosie Kanani

Leicestershire County Council

Dave Brancher

[FOI #201701 email]

10/04/2014

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

FOI Request Number : 5106
Description : School Transport Communication

Dear Dave Brancher,

Your request for information is being considered.

Apologies for the delay in responding to you. I can confirm that some of the information requested is held by Leicestershire County Council.

On identifying the information requested it has become necessary to apply a public interest test. This is where the Council needs to balance the public interest in disclosing the information against the public interest in withholding it. The Council’s Public Interest Panel is to consider your request.

The Freedom of Information Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However when a “qualified exemption” applies to the information and the public interest test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case.

In your case we estimate that it will take additional 20 days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by 13th May 2014. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion we will keep you informed.

The specific exemptions which may apply in relation to your request are:
Section 36 - Prejudice to the Effective Conduct of Public Affairs
Section 34 - Trade Secrets and Prejudice to Commercial Interests

We have also considered that the following absolute exemption may apply to the information requested:
Section 21 - Information Already Reasonably Accessible

I will write to you as soon as possible with the outcome of the assessment.

If you have any queries or concerns then please do not hesitate to contact me on 0116 305 5284 or [Leicestershire County Council request email], quoting the FOI Request Number.

For independent advice, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113 www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Rosie Kanani

Leicestershire County Council

Dave Brancher

[FOI #201701 email]

08/05/2014

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

FOI Request Number : 5106
Description : School Transport Communication

Dear Dave,

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Leicestershire County Council.

Your request for information has now been considered and some of the information requested is available from http://axlr8.leicsfoi.org.uk/disclosureL...

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this letter acts as a Partial Public Interest Refusal Notice.

It is considered that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.

The exemption applied is Section 43 – Trade secrets and prejudice to commercial interests.
Section 43 applies because within the correspondence that you have asked for there is some information that is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Leicestershire County Council and a Bosworth Academy and that if disclosed this would not promote or enable free and open discussions.

The Council has weighed up the public interest and in favour of disclosure is the openness and transparency of Council decisions and actions. This is weighed up against the need for the Council acting as a commercial organisation to be able to engage with academies in line with market values, and current market conditions.

The disclosure of this information could prohibit the Council from being able to freely and without prejudice engage with commercial partners to achieve the best outcome from academies in the future.
On balance the Council believes that the public interest is best served by maintaining the exemption, to enable the Council to act with financial prudence and to engage with academies without prejudice in the future.

We are also using the Section 21 exemption – Information Already Reasonably Accessible as some of the documents are available on the Council Website -

In addition, some information is readily accessible on the council website:
http://politics.leics.gov.uk/Published/C...

http://politics.leics.gov.uk/Published/C...

I apologise that your request will not be met in full but if you wish to discuss any of the above please contact me on 0116 305 5284 or [Leicestershire County Council request email], quoting the FOI Request Number.

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your internal review you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113 www.ico.gov.uk

For independent advice, you may wish to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113 www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Rosie Kanani