Sarah Walsh
FOI Officer
Independent Monitoring Boards Secretariat
Post Point 2
10 South Colonnade
Canary Wharf
London, E14 4PU
Steven Allen
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
19 August 2019
Dear Steven Allen,
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
Thank you for your request dated 4 August to the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at HMP
YOI Feltham which you asked:
Please release:
- A list of all members of Feltham IMB in the last ten years.
- All meeting minutes between members of Feltham IMB and HMP/YOI Feltham
Management in the last 10 years.
- All notes taken in formal and informal meetings between members of Feltham IMB and
HMP/YOI Feltham Management in the last 10 years.
- All correspondence, including any electronic correspondence, between members of
Feltham IMB and HMP/YOI Feltham Management in the last 10 years.
- All correspondence, including electronic correspondence, between members of Feltham
IMB and the Ministry of Justice in the last 10 years.
- A list of visits by IMB Feltham members to HMP/YOI Feltham broken down by member,
date, time, purpose, in the last 10 years.
- A list of complaints investigated by members of IMB Feltham specifying member(s)
investigating, date, subject, staff implicated and outcome in the last 10 years.
- All notes taken by members of IMB Feltham during visits to HMP/YOI Feltham in the last
ten years.
Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The IMB at HMP YOI Feltham confirms it holds some of the information requested, however it
will not be providing it because the request exceeds the cost limit set out in the FOIA.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for
information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The
appropriate limit for IMBs is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person
spending 18 hours determining whether the board holds the information, and locating, retrieving
and extracting the information.
The record retention period for IMB records is seven years. The board does not hold records
beyond this date. In respect of the records held, as this includes email accounts, handwritten
note books, Rota reports, annual reports and all other records held by the board for the period
Monitoring fairness and respect for people in custody
specified, even with conservative estimates of the time required to undertake this search, it is
our assessment that this would far exceed the time limits set by the Act.
Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we may be able to answer a refined
request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example, specifying a narrower
period of time or a particular type of record. Please note that all IMB Annual reports are
published online
at https://www.imb.org.uk/reports/ Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the
FOIA cost limit, or that other exemptions will not apply.
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by
responding in writing to the addresses at the top of this letter within two months of the date of
this response.
You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate any
aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal
complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning their investigation.
You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Internet address:
https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx
Yours sincerely
SARAH WALSH
On behalf of the Independent Monitoring Board HMP YOI Feltham