Emergency plan

The request was successful.

Dear Newry, Mourne and Down District Council,

Can you publish the latest copy?

Yours faithfully,

Abdul Hai

Abdul Hai left an annotation ()

Former Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay said on LBC with Andrew Castle today (June 25) that he will be asking his local council for a copy of their emergency plan under FOI. He said that everyone should do the same.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

Dear Mr Hai,

I acknowledge receipt of your email of 7th August 2017.

Can I ask at the outset that you elaborate a little on the detail of the
request?

Upon receipt of further information I will be happy to formally
acknowledge your application and will respond more fully to you in due
course.

Many thanks,

Regards,

Fearghal O'Connor
Information Officer
Oifig Dhún Pádraig
Downpatrick Office
Downshire Civic Centre
Downshire Estate, Ardglass Road
Downpatrick, BT30 6GQ
Council: 0300 013 2233
Planning: 0300 200 7830

www.newrymournedown.org
www.facebook.com/nmdcouncil
www.twitter.com/nmdcouncil

Save paper - think before you print!

This e-mail, its contents and any attachments are intended only for the
above named. As this e-mail may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, if you are not, or suspect that you are not,
the above named, or the person responsible for delivering the message
to the above named, delete or destroy the email and any attachments
immediately. The contents of this e-mail may not be disclosed to, nor
used by, anyone other than the above named. We will not accept any
liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party
acting, or refraining from acting, on such information. Opinions,
conclusions and other information expressed in such messages are not
given or endorsed by the Council, unless otherwise indicated in writing
by an authorised representative independent of such messages.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that this message or any
attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.

The Council undertakes monitoring of both incoming and outgoing
e-mails. You should therefore be aware that if you send an e-mail to a
person within the Council it may be subject to any monitoring deemed
necessary by the organisation.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this e-mail
(or any response to it) under UK Data Protection and Freedom of
Information legislation, unless the information in it is covered by an
exemption.

Dear Newry, Mourne and Down District Council,

It is the main plan that you have for civil emergencies and things like Grenfell Tower.

Yours faithfully,

Abdul Hai

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

Dear Mr Hai,

Thank you for your email dated 4th August 2017  and your follow-up.

You have requested from Newry, Mourne and Down District Council
information in relation to the Council Civil Emergency plan.

I confirm your request will be processed as a request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  Accordingly, you will receive the information you
have requested within 20 working days of the date of receipt of your
request by the Council unless the Council does not hold the information or
there is a reason to withhold all or part of the information requested.
 Council will write to you in any event.  

For further information in relation to the Freedom of Information Act 2000
I would refer you to the Information Commissioner's Office website,
www.ico.org.uk 

If you wish to discuss the above please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards,

Fearghal O'Connor
Information Officer
Oifig Dhún Pádraig
Downpatrick Office
Downshire Civic Centre
Downshire Estate, Ardglass Road
Downpatrick, BT30 6GQ
Council: 0300 013 2233
Planning: 0300 200 7830

www.newrymournedown.org
www.facebook.com/nmdcouncil
www.twitter.com/nmdcouncil

Save paper - think before you print!

This e-mail, its contents and any attachments are intended only for the
above named. As this e-mail may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, if you are not, or suspect that you are not,
the above named, or the person responsible for delivering the message
to the above named, delete or destroy the email and any attachments
immediately. The contents of this e-mail may not be disclosed to, nor
used by, anyone other than the above named. We will not accept any
liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party
acting, or refraining from acting, on such information. Opinions,
conclusions and other information expressed in such messages are not
given or endorsed by the Council, unless otherwise indicated in writing
by an authorised representative independent of such messages.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that this message or any
attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.

The Council undertakes monitoring of both incoming and outgoing
e-mails. You should therefore be aware that if you send an e-mail to a
person within the Council it may be subject to any monitoring deemed
necessary by the organisation.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this e-mail
(or any response to it) under UK Data Protection and Freedom of
Information legislation, unless the information in it is covered by an
exemption.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Hai,
I refer to the above and thank you for your request for information dated
4th August 2017.

Your request to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council in relation to
obtain a copy of the Emergency plan has been treated as a request under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  I confirm your request has now been
processed as a request under the terms of the Act and, accordingly, please
see the response below.

The Information requested by you can be found in the attached document. It
is considered, however, that some information is exempt under Article
40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and therefore names and
telephone numbers of individuals have been redacted from the document.

Article 40(2) of the FOIA covers the position where the disclosure of
personal data of Third parties, in compliance with a request, would breach
any of the principles in the Data Protection Act.

The only principle which is likely to be relevant is the first principle,
wherein the public authority can only disclose the personal data if to do
so would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions in Schedule 2 of
the DPA.

In assessing firstly the disclosure would be fair, Council has looked at:

1) the reasonable expectations of the individuals in respect of whom the
redactions have been made, taking into account their expectations at the
time when the information was gathered, and the circumstances in which the
data was obtained;

2) the FOIA principles of transparency and accountability;

3) whether there is a legitimate interest in the public or requester
having access to the information and the balance between this and the
rights and freedoms of data subjects.

It is felt that the primary reason for the inclusion of the names and
telephone numbers of the Council officers within the document was to
provide an emergency number to enable these individuals to be contacted in
connection with emergency procedures. The reasonable expectations of the
individuals would have been that disclosure of this information to the
wider public was not made. There is no legitimate interest in the public
or requester having access to the information.

Council has decided taking these factors into consideration that
disclosure would not be fair.

Even in the event that a decision had been taken that disclosure would be
fair, Council would then have been required to consider whether disclosure
of the information would satisfy a Schedule 2 condition. The relevant
conditions in Schedule 2 are:
  
o the data subject has consented to the disclosure; or
 
o there is a legitimate interest in disclosure to the public or the
requester and disclosure into the public domain is necessary to meet that
interest and it does not cause unwarranted harm to the data subject’s
interests. The key consideration here is whether the disclosure is
necessary and it would be Council's view in the present case that the
disclosure would be unnecessary.

If you wish to discuss the above or require clarification on any matter,
please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

I trust this is of assistance.  However, should you be unhappy with our
response in this matter you may request an Internal Review of our response
and you can contact Mrs. Alison Robb, Assistant Director of Administration
([email address]) in that regard. In the event you are unhappy with
the outcome of any Internal Review conducted by the Council you may apply
to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a review of our
response. Please note that the ICO generally expects Internal Reviews to
be completed prior to reviewing the decisions of public bodies.  For
further information in relation to Freedom of Information I would direct
you to the website of the Information Commissioner at: [1]www.ico.org.uk.
(See attached file: No numbers Emergency plan NMDDC.doc)

Fearghal O'Connor
Information Officer
Oifig Dhún Pádraig
Downpatrick Office
Downshire Civic Centre
Downshire Estate, Ardglass Road
Downpatrick, BT30 6GQ
Council: 0300 013 2233
Planning: 0300 200 7830

www.newrymournedown.org
www.facebook.com/nmdcouncil
www.twitter.com/nmdcouncil

Save paper - think before you print!

This e-mail, its contents and any attachments are intended only for the
above named. As this e-mail may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, if you are not, or suspect that you are not,
the above named, or the person responsible for delivering the message
to the above named, delete or destroy the email and any attachments
immediately. The contents of this e-mail may not be disclosed to, nor
used by, anyone other than the above named. We will not accept any
liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party
acting, or refraining from acting, on such information. Opinions,
conclusions and other information expressed in such messages are not
given or endorsed by the Council, unless otherwise indicated in writing
by an authorised representative independent of such messages.

Please note that we cannot guarantee that this message or any
attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended.

The Council undertakes monitoring of both incoming and outgoing
e-mails. You should therefore be aware that if you send an e-mail to a
person within the Council it may be subject to any monitoring deemed
necessary by the organisation.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this e-mail
(or any response to it) under UK Data Protection and Freedom of
Information legislation, unless the information in it is covered by an
exemption.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/