Spend over £500 from September 2017 onwards

The request was successful.

Dear Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council,

Thank you for publishing your spend data here: https://go.walsall.gov.uk/spending-trans.... However, I notice that you haven't published any spending data since August.

I'd like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for all transactions over £500 from September to December 2017. Please provide the data in a machine readable format (preferably csv). As a minimum, please make sure to include the date, value and recipient of each transaction. Please also provide details on the procurement category of each transaction if you have it.

Your team may also be interested in the guidance on producing spending data:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....

For the avoidance of doubt, I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act. I await your response within 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,

Helen McNally

InformationRights, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

Ms McNally,

 

Thank you for your request for information, relating to Spend over £500
from September 2017 onwards, I can tell you that under the FOI Act the
information is exempt from disclosure under the provisions of section 21.
Section 21 sets out that the local authority need not provide information
under the FOI Act where the information requested is ‘ reasonably
accessible’ by other means.  

 

This information can be provided by accessing the link below:  

 

[1]https://go.walsall.gov.uk/spending-trans...

 

The council decided to publish Spending over £500 data for the first time
in March 2017 in order to help fulfil Freedom of Information requests.
Given the amount of time that fulfilling individual intermittent requests
takes we feel that in line with accepted practice across local government
that it is sensible and fair to publish through open data Walsall’s
Spending over £500 information twice yearly and hence the information you
request is available online and for further publication.

 

This request is therefore refused. I hope that the information provided is
useful to you. However, if you are dissatisfied, you should set out in
writing your grounds for complaint and send to: Information Risk &
Governance Manager, Business Change, Civic Centre, Darwall Street,
Walsall, WS1 1TP.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

 

Kind Regards

 

 

Fakhara Qanwal

 

References

Visible links
1. https://go.walsall.gov.uk/spending-trans...
2. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Dear Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Spend over £500 from September 2017 onwards'.

I requested your spending data from September 2017 onwards. You refused my request stating that the data was already available. However, the link you provided only has data up to August 2017.

You also stated that you will publish the data twice a year. However, the legal guidance for local authorities on publishing the data states that it must at least be published quarterly one month in arrears:

27.The data and information referred to in this Part (2.1) must be:
 first published within a period of three months from the date on which the local authority last published that data under the Local Government Transparency Code 201413 and not later than one month after the quarter to which the data and information is applicable
 published quarterly thereafter and on each occasion not later than one month after the quarter to which the data and information is applicable.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/sy...

Therefore I believe section 21 has been misapplied in this instance as this data is not available and I also believe you need to review your publishing policy as it the moment you are not fulfilling your legal requirements to publish this data in a timely manner.

I await your response within 20 working days.

Yours faithfully,

Helen McNally

InformationRights, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Ms McNally

Request for Internal Review / complaint

Thank you for your correspondence received by us on 23 February 2018.
In this you are seeking a review of your FOI Request – RFI 0259/18 on the following grounds:

• The section 21 exemption is not applicable as the information in question was not available as you were advised.

• You have also raised the issue that the council has failed in its obligations relating to LG Transparency Code as the information should be published quarterly, rather than twice yearly.

In accordance with provisions within Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations, the council will review the handling of your request and provide you with a response within 20 working days or 40 working days if the case is particularly complex.

I have also asked that the officer responsible for the publication of data responds to this appeal as they will be able to comment on the question regarding publication.

In the meantime, if you need to contact me about your request, please do so quoting the above reference number and using the contact details below.

Yours sincerely

James  N A Sparrock
Lead Assurance Officer (Information Rights and Complaints)
Walsall Council
3rd Floor (HR Suite),
Civic Centre,
Darwall Street,
Walsall,
WS1 1DG

[email address]
web site: walsall.gov.uk

Tel: 01922  65 0950

Disclaimer: IF THIS EMAIL IS MARKED PRIVATE OR CONFIDENTIAL - PLEASE RESPECT THAT AND DO NOT FORWARD IT TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated.  If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified.  The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Walsall MBC unless explicitly stated.  E-mails sent or received from Walsall MBC may be intercepted and read by the Council.  Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with Council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the e-mail system. You should also be aware that any email may be subject of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of Information or Environmental Information legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties.

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Vanessa Holding, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms McNally

Further to your recent email, please find attached our response following appeal investigation.

Regards

Vanessa Holding

Lead Assurance Officer
Assurance Team, Resources and Transformation
Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council
3rd Floor (HR Suite), Civic Centre, Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1DG
Tel: 01922 65 2509
Email: [email address]
Web: www.walsall.gov.uk

Disclaimer: IF THIS EMAIL IS MARKED PRIVATE OR CONFIDENTIAL - PLEASE RESPECT THAT AND DO NOT FORWARD IT TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. The information in this message should be regarded as confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and not necessarily those of Walsall MBC unless explicitly stated. E-mails sent or received from Walsall MBC may be intercepted and read by the Council. Interception will only occur to ensure compliance with Council policies or procedures or regulatory obligations, to prevent or deter crime, or for the purposes of essential maintenance or support of the e-mail system. You should also be aware that any email may be subject of a request under Data Protection, Freedom of Information or Environmental Information legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties..

E-mail Security: Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an enquiry of this nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise that there can be no guarantee of privacy.

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Dear Ms Holding,

Thank you very much for your thorough response to my request for internal review and for taking the steps you outlined to address the issues I raised. Thanks also for publishing this data up to December on your website.

Yours sincerely,

Helen McNally