Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Wrecsam/ Wrexham County Borough Council
Neuadd y Dref, Wrecsam. LL11 1AY
Guildhall, Wrexham. LL11 1AY
www.wrecsam.gov.uk
www.wrexham.gov.uk
Cyfnewid Testun/Text Relay: 18001
Ein Cyf/Our ref
FOI0408
Mr N Prabhu
Dyddiad/Date
21 August 2020
By Email:
Gofynner am/Ask for
Corporate Information Team
request-647533-
Rhif Cyswllt/Contact No
01978 292000
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
E-bost/E-mail
xxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Prabhu
Re: Internal Review of FOI0408
An Internal Review has been undertaken in relation to your request for information under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Before continuing, please allow me to apologise for the extensive delay in responding to
your Internal Review request. This delays have been due to the ongoing Covid 19
pandemic, which severely reduced the resource capacity of the team who carry out Internal
Reviews on behalf of Wrexham Council.
You had initial made a request for information which was handled and responded to under
FOI0386. The information at that time was not provided under Section 12 – Request
exceeds cost threshold. You therefore provided a more specific request for information
which was handled and responded to under FOI0408.
You remain dissatisfied that information pertaining to question 1 of your second FOI
request was not provided:
1. Payments to suppliers who provide fostering and adoption services to the Council
In this case an exemption under Section 40(2) – Third Party Information was applied and
you were advised of this outcome. You dispute this:
What we are requesting does NOT constitute "personal sensitive information" for the
purposes of FOIA. This is standard information provided by all the Welsh authorities we
have approached, over the past 2 years. All the councils have provided us with this data,
including Wrexham.
We do not understand why you would apply the exemption in this instance. Private
individual names (for eg. Fostering Allowances or personal payments) may indeed be
Redacted; but Fostering Agencies & Supplier names should be provided under the
provisions of the act.
Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn ymateb i unrhyw ohebiaeth yn Gymraeg ac ni fydd hyn yn arwain at unrhyw oedi.
We welcome correspondence in Welsh. We will respond to any correspondence in Welsh and this will not lead to any delay.
Findings:
This review has considered the objection you have put forward and the reasons for the
application of an exemption under S.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. This
review has also considered the guidance as published by the ICO and the
Government.
The determination is that the exemption was applied appropriately in this case. Your
objection is noted and understood, however the reason to not provide the names of
the agencies was due to the low numbers of children in their care. Therefore the
provision of the names themselves may result in children being able to be identified,
once that information has been placed in the public domain.
The decision has been made pertaining this enquiry only and your comments that
other Authorities and Wrexham Council in the past have provided the information you
requested would not be considered applicable in this case.
If you are not content with the outcome, you have a right to take the issue to the
Information Commissioner (ICO), who investigates complaints on information access.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,
Gareth Jones
Complaints Lead