We estimate that to comply with your request would exceed the appropriate limit, which
means your request will not be processed further.
You may wish to refine your request by narrowing its scope, for example, you could refine
your request to only general guidance and policies issued and not specific advice given at
individual level.
Another consideration around a request for information at an individual level, is that it
maybe personal data, which would be exempt from release under the Act by virtue of
section 40(2) - Personal information of another person.
On 13 October 2020 you emailed the council to say:
Under Section 16, of the Freedom of Information Act you have an obligation to advise
what, if any information may assist me with my request. I request you complete an internal
review.
I have reviewed the handling of your original request and have concluded that I agree with
our original decision. The cost of complying with your request, would exceed the
appropriate limit. Under our Section 16 obligations we advised you that could refine your
request and remove the part for specific guidance/advice which had been sent to families
or legal representatives. Personal data would also be exempt under the FOIA.
Please also bear in mind that under Section 12, if any part of the request would exceed the
cost limit, then we are not obliged to search for, or provide the remainder of the requested
information. Kindly note these points from the ICO:
• If a public authority initially estimates that it could complete its searches under the
appropriate limit, but then finds that it cannot, it can stop searching once it reaches
that limit. This is because it is not obliged to continue searching just because it
originally estimated that the searches could be completed within the appropriate
limit.
• As a matter of good practice, public authorities should avoid providing the
information found as a result of its searching and claiming section 12 for the
remainder of the information
Following our initial response to you on 23 September 2020, we wrote to you again on 16
October advising you of our decision to aggregate six of your requests. Aggregating the
requests also meant that combined, they would exceed the appropriate limit. We
suggested at that time, that we could put you in touch with a member of the SEND team, in
order to discuss your queries, and hopefully find a satisfactory response for you.
If you are still dissatisfied with the council’s response to your request for information you
have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioners
contact details are:
Information Commissioners Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel; 0303 123 1113
www.ico.org.uk
Yours sincerely
Josie Convery
Senior Information Governance Officer – FOI and Records
Direct line: 01225 712612
Email: xxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx