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PFI PPP Safety Audit

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Dear Dumfries and Galloway Council,

This request for information is an attempt to seek reassurance about the safety of public buildings in the light of the findings revealed in the Inquiry commissioned following the collapse of a school building wall in Edinburgh and subsequent closure of 17 schools.
Please answer the following for each PFI/PPP schemes in the local authority area treating each scheme as a separate request.
Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has responded to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools Construction by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails, minutes, reports.
I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.
Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the level of indemnity insurance and liability period.
Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per project/site.
Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served; investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety (include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these) Please provide copies of all items listed.
Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to structural defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for, and when the deduction was made.c

Yours faithfully,

Megan Ingles

Dumfries and Galloway Council

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 24/05/2017 which we are dealing with in terms of the above legislation. We have given your request the unique reference 257184 and we would appreciate it if you could quote this on all correspondence to us.

Under the terms of the legislation, we have an obligation to respond to your request within 20 working days from the day after your request was received. We will therefore aim to respond to your request by 21/06/2017.

Please be aware that, in some circumstances, a fee may be payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information you have requested. If this is the case, a fees notice will be issued, which would need to be paid in order to progress your request.

If your request for information is considered and deemed as a 'business as usual' request, it will be responded to by the appropriate Service within the Council.

If you have any queries in the meantime, please contact [email address].

Kind Regards

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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Any email message sent or received by the
Council may require to be disclosed by the
Council under the provisions of the Freedom
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Dear Dumfries and Galloway Council,

A response to my request is now overdue. Please could you contact me as soon as possible with a response and an explanation for the delay

Yours faithfully,

Megan Ingles

FOI, Dumfries and Galloway Council

Dear Megan,

I'm afraid we have been required undertake considerable consultation on this which has led to the delay in issuing you a response. We are working with various departments to review any remaining issues and we are aiming to issue a response as soon as possible.

Regards,

Aaron

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Dear Dumfries and Galloway Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Dumfries and Galloway Council's handling of my FOI request 'PFI PPP Safety Audit'.

When a response to my request was overdue I send a prompt email asking for an explanation for the delay. In response I received the following explanation:
"I'm afraid we have been required undertake considerable consultation on this which has led to the delay in issuing you a response. We are working with various departments to review any remaining issues and we are aiming to issue a response as soon as possible."
Since this time I have heard nothing. No exemptions have been cited and no request for additional time to consider the public interest test. This response is now long overdue and by law, in all circumstances the authority should have responded to me by now.

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

Yours faithfully,

Megan Ingles

FOI, Dumfries and Galloway Council

Dear Ms Ingles,

Our sincere apologies, since the email previously sent to you, an error has occurred which has resulted in your request being removed from our open cases list. I am sorry for this error, the excessive delay and the inconvenience this has caused you.

We will get a response to you as soon as possible and by the end of this week.

Regards,

FOI Unit
Dumfries and Galloway Council

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FOI, Dumfries and Galloway Council

12 Attachments

Dear Ms Ingles,

 

Please accept my sincere apology for the excessive delay with this
response and the inconvenience this has caused you.

 

Please find below the Council's response to your request 257184 which was
received on 24/05/2017.

 

Details of request:

 

This request for information is an attempt to seek reassurance about the
safety of public buildings in the light of the findings revealed in the
Inquiry commissioned following the collapse of a school building wall in
Edinburgh and subsequent closure of 17 schools.

 

Please answer the following for each PFI/PPP schemes in the local
authority area treating each scheme as a separate request.

 

Please provide all documents showing how your organisation has responded
to the findings contained in the report on Edinburgh Schools Construction
by John Cole: including, but not limited to memos, emails, minutes,
reports.

 

I would like to understand the expertise and resource committed by your
organisation to the management and oversight of PFI schemes from
procurement through to ongoing contract operation. Please provide
documents relating to the PFI Team(s) allocated to each project its makeup
and structure of the team during each project phase. This may comprise
terms of reference, organisation chart, post titles and role profiles.

 

Provide the deed of appointment for the Independent Certifier and any
other documents setting out the scope of that role. Please confirm the
level of indemnity insurance and liability period.

 

Please confirm whether your organisation employed a member of the
Institute of Clerk of Works or an inspector of similar standing and
assigned them to each construction site. If someone in this role was
employed please confirm their level of qualification, the salary
associated with this role and how much time was allocated to per
project/site.

 

Please provide a list of all enforcement or improvement notices served;
investigations carried out and reports commissioned into fire safety
(include dates and specify who commissioned or issued these)  Please
provide copies of all items listed.

 

Provide details of all attempts to make deductions relating to structural
defects for each project. Confirm the amount, what it was for, and when
the deduction was made.

 

Response:

 

Q1: In accordance with Section 17(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002, Dumfries and Galloway Council advises that it does
not hold any information within the scope of your request. The Council can
however confirm that it sought assurances from its PPP Contractor that the
issues relating to the construction of the schools in Edinburgh were not
present in the D&G PPP schools and following independent intrusive
structural surveys, were advised that this was the case.

 

Q2: The Council employ a dedicated team within the Children, Young People
and Lifelong Learning directorate who monitor the schools’ PPP Project.
This team consists of a PPP and DBFM Manager and a Project Compliance and
Monitoring Officer who undertake on-site and desktop monitoring of the
services  provided. If additional specialist input is required, these
Officers have the facility to liaise with colleagues across the various
departments within D&G Council. An organisational chart of management and
oversight of the schools’ PPP project is recorded below.

 

[1]CYPLL Committee,CYPLL Project Board,Strategic Lead, Physical Learning
Environments,PPP and DBFM Manager,Project Compliance & Monitoring Officer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, external financial, technical and legal consultants are
available when required.

 

Q3: Please find attached the deed of appointment for the Independent
Certifier and other documents setting out the scope of that role. The
level of indemnity insurance and liability period is included within these
documents. Please however note that names, signatures and direct contact
details have been redacted in accordance with Section 38(1)(b), read in
conjunction with 38(2)(a)(i), of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act
2002 - to disclose this information would be to disclose third party
personal information without an appropriate condition for processing, and
essentially breach Principle 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

Please also note that the Council is applying Section 33(1)(b) of the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (commercial interests and the
economy) to individual rates for services. This is due to the potential
for disclosure to cause commercial detriment to the contracted suppliers
and create an unfair advantage for their competitors. Whilst there may be
public interest in providing information on overall costings, the greater
public interest lies with non-disclosure of the individual rates for
services as any such disclosure would, or would be likely, to
substantially prejudice the Council's ability to negotiate and acquire the
best value premiums. In addition, any such disclosure would, or would be
likely, to substantially prejudice the commercial interests of the
provider.

 

Q4: We can advise that Dumfries and Galloway Council did not employ a
Clerk of Works for the construction sites.

 

Q5: We can advise that no enforcement or improvement notices have been
served.  In 2016 there were joint Authority / Contractor inspections which
identified no issues with fire stopping.

 

Q6: There have been no attempts to make deductions for issues relating to
structural defects.

 

Please be aware that the Council holds the copyright, where applicable,
for the information provided and it may be reproduced free of charge in
any format or media without requiring specific permission.  This is
subject to the material not being used in a misleading context.  The
source of the material must be acknowledged as Dumfries and Galloway
Council and the title of the document must be included when being
reproduced as part of another publication or service.

 

If you require any further clarification, please contact us.  However, if
you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt
with, you can request us to carry out an internal review of the decision
by emailing [2][email address] or writing to us within 40 working days
of receiving this response. 

 

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, you have the right
to apply to the Scottish Information Commissioner for a decision. Appeals
to the Commissioner can be made online at
[3]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal or in writing to: The Office of the
Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St
Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DS.

          

Kind Regards

 

FOI Unit 

Dumfries and Galloway Council  

 

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Any email message sent or received by the
Council may require to be disclosed by the
Council under the provisions of the Freedom
of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

References

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2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Megan Ingles please sign in and let everyone know.