Disciplinary/Police Reports by School against pupils/parents re Anti Trans Gender Education.

[name removed] made this Freedom of Information request to City of Edinburgh Council as part of a batch sent to 32 authorities This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Waiting for an internal review by City of Edinburgh Council of their handling of this request.

Dear City of Edinburgh Council,

Per FOISA, please supply me with information contained within your records as follows:

1. Per School, please provide the number of pupils that have been:

a) Officially disciplined by the school for alleged discriminatory or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

b) Reports made to the police for alleged discrimination or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

2. Per School, please provide the number of parents/guardians that have been:Officially reported by the school for their child/pupils alleged discriminatory or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

Yours faithfully,

[name removed]
[name removed]

City of Edinburgh Council

[name removed]

Our ref: 39590

Dear [name removed]

Acknowledgement of Request

Subject: Disciplinary/Police Reports by School against pupils/parents re Anti Trans Gender Education.

Thank you for your request for information of 08/11/2022 which was received on 08/11/2022.

In your request you asked for the following;

Per School, please provide the number of pupils that have been:

a) Officially disciplined by the school for alleged discriminatory or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

b) Reports made to the police for alleged discrimination or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

2. Per School, please provide the number of parents/guardians that have been:Officially reported by the school for their child/pupils alleged discriminatory or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

I can confirm that your request will be processed under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Environmental Information Regulations (Scotland) 2004, or the INSPIRE (Scotland) Regulations 2009.

You will receive the information requested within 20 working days unless the Council does not hold the information, or there is a reason for it to be withheld. We will write to you in any event. This means we have until 07/12/2022 to respond to your request.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case we will let you know.

If you have any requirements regarding the format any information should be supplied in, e.g. the language to be used, audio, large print and so on, then please let me know.

If you have any queries or concerns, do not hesitate to get in touch. Please quote the reference number above in any future communications.

To promote transparency and accountability, it is the Council’s policy to publish all request details and responses made under the freedom of information legislation. This information is available at the following link: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/homepage/10....

Further information about your rights and accessing information is available on our website at: www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Unit
Level 2:1, Waverley Court, Edinburgh EH8 8BG Tel 0131 200 2340
[Edinburgh City Council request email] www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Dear City of Edinburgh Council,

Please note I do not now require a break down of numbers per school, as I appreciate that the numbers we talking about here are minimal and may identify an individual.

To assist I require the data from academic year 2019/20 to date broken down AY on AY.

Yours faithfully,

[name removed]

Information Rights Officer 4, City of Edinburgh Council

[name removed]

[1][FOI #914775 email]

Our ref: 39590

Dear [name removed]

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Excessive Cost

Subject: Trans Gender Education

Thank you for your request for information of 08/11/2022, where you asked
the following:

Q1. Per School, please provide the number of pupils that have been:

a) Officially disciplined by the school for alleged discriminatory or
homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

b) Reports made to the police for alleged discrimination or homophobic
behaviour or views against trans gender EDUCATION?

Q2. Per School, please provide the number of parents/guardians that have
been officially reported by the school for their child/pupils alleged
discriminatory or homophobic behaviour or views against trans gender
EDUCATION.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with the information you have
requested as the cost to the Council of locating, retrieving and providing
you with the information far exceeds the statutory maximum of £600.

Section 12(1) of the Act does not oblige a Scottish public authority to
comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the
cost of complying with the request would exceed the statutory limit.

This sum has been calculated as follows:

The specific information requested is not centrally held by the City of
Edinburgh Council and would be recorded in each pupil’s Pastoral Notes.
There is no automated method of collating such information, therefore a
manual search of each record would be required to locate, retrieve and
provide any information which may be within scope of your request.

There are currently 53,891 pupils’ Pastoral Notes to be searched. The time
it would take to complete each search would vary depending on the size of
each pupil’s notes, e.g., a Primary One pupil will have notes covering one
year, whereas a Sixth Year secondary pupil may have notes covering a
thirteen year period and will take significantly longer to search. Based
on an absolute minimum of 5 minutes to search one pupil’s record, covering
one year, this would equate to 4,491 hours of work for 53,891 pupils.
Based on £15 per hour (This is the capped maximum rate chargeable), the
total cost would be £67,365.00. This cost will increase with each
additional year searched.

The Council appreciates that you may not have been aware of the size and
scope of the information that you requested the Council provide you with
as a result of your request. It may be possible to identify a portion of
the information that you are seeking, perhaps by reducing the scope of
your request to specific schools/year groups, however, due to the small
number of pupils involved, and as the information would relate to
sensitive personal information, this would be exempt from release under
the Data Protection Act 2018. Please note that requests revised in this
way are considered as new requests under the legislation. If you wish to
discuss this option further, or have any other queries, please do not
hesitate to contact me.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

To promote transparency and accountability, it is the Council’s policy to
publish all request details and responses made under the freedom of
information legislation. This information is available at the following
link:
[2]https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/homepage/10....

Your right to seek a review

If you are unhappy with the way we have dealt with your request, you can
ask us to review our actions and decisions by writing to the:

Information Compliance Team

The City of Edinburgh Council

Waverley Court Business Centre 2:1

4, East Market Street

Edinburgh

EH8 8BG or,

Email: [3][email address]

Please note that your request must be in a recordable format (email,
letter, audio tape etc.), and that you have 40 working days upon receipt
of this letter to ask for a review. You will receive a full response to
your review request within 20 working days of its receipt. Please quote
the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the review, you can ask the
Scottish Information Commissioner to review our decision. You must submit
your complaint to the Commissioner within 6 months of receiving our review
response. The Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St Andrews

Fife

KY16 9DS

Telephone: 01334 464610

Fax: 01334 464611

Website: [4]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

Email: [5][email address]

Yours sincerely

Iain Burden

Information Rights Officer

Information Governance Unit

Level 2:1, Waverley Court, Edinburgh EH8 8BG Tel 0131 200 2340

[6][Edinburgh City Council request email]   [7]www.edinburgh.gov.uk

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[foi%20#914775%20email]
2. https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/homepage/10...
3. mailto:[email%20address]
4. http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal
5. mailto:[email%20address]
6. mailto:[edinburgh%20city%20council%20request%20email]
7. http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/

Dear City of Edinburgh Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of City of Edinburgh Council's handling of my FOI request 'Disciplinary/Police Reports by School against pupils/parents re Anti Trans Gender Education.'.

I do not accept the cost exemption and reason supplied for not disclosing the information requested as per the Scottish Government Supporting transgender young people in schools: guidance for Scottish schools, https://www.gov.scot/publications/suppor...

It states In 2019, there were 697,989 pupils in Scotland’s public schools, it is known that around 200 young people per year receive support from the Young Person’s Gender Service with their transition
These data sets must be given to SG to account the funding allocations that are awarded to ensure VfM.

Summary statistics for schools in Scotland no. 10: 2019 edition.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/summar...

Scottish Public Health Network
https://www.scotphn.net/wp-content/uploa...

Additionally if the following councils can disclose this information without applying a spurious exemption, then why can't you?

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,
[name removed]
[name removed]

Information Rights, City of Edinburgh Council

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email.

Can you please provide us with our reference number for this request so we can pass this onto our review team.

Kind Regards

Ann

Ann Lee I Business Support Administrator I Corporate Services I Customer and Digital Services (ICT) I Business Support I The City of Edinburgh Council, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG I www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Please note my working pattern is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday.

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Dear Information Rights,

[1][FOI #914775 email]

Yours sincerely,

[name removed]

Information Rights, City of Edinburgh Council

Good morning,

The reference we are looking for starts with EDIR: information should be on your acknowledgement email. Once we receive this we will match up and forward onto Review Team.

Kind Regards

Ann

Ann Lee I Business Support Administrator I Corporate Services I Customer and Digital Services (ICT) I Business Support I The City of Edinburgh Council, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG I www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Please note my working pattern is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday.

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Dear Information Rights,

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Our ref: 39590 9th Nov 2022

You don’t appear to have given a ref beginning EDIR

Yours sincerely,
[name removed]
[name removed]

Information Rights, City of Edinburgh Council

Thank you for sending the reference number that’s what we need before we can pass on to Review Team.

Ann

Ann Lee I Business Support Administrator I Corporate Services I Customer and Digital Services (ICT) I Business Support I The City of Edinburgh Council, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG I www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Please note my working pattern is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday.

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