Dear Mr Morgan

I write further to our emails below and sincerely apologise for our delay in responding and any inconvenience this may have caused you.

As your request is about information relating to the potential development of land, we have considered it under the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the EI Regulations) and our response is set out below.

Please find attached several documents that fall within the scope of the information you have requested. Sport England holds some further information falling within the scope of your request, but we consider these to be exempt from disclosure. This is because we have decided that the following exceptions of the EI Regulations apply to these further documents:

There is a presumption that information should be released unless there are compelling reasons to withhold it. The public interest test requires a public body to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest presumption in favour of disclosure. We have done this by carrying out a scoring system which is set out in a tabular form below. We have used a scale of 0-5, with 0 having the least weight and 5 having the most weight, to determine the weight for and against each public interest factor. The public interest factors in favour of or against disclosure are derived from guidance and legislation and they have also been included in the table.

Factors in

information

favour

of

disclosing

the

Factors in

information

favour

of

withholding

the

The inherent public interest in ensuring openness and transparency in the work of

public authorities including Sport England

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 3

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

The public interest in preserving the principle of confidentiality.

 

Sport England needs to be able to retain the confidence and trust of its stakeholders without taking action that would create a chilling effect. Our stakeholders may be discouraged from confiding in Sport England if they do not have a degree of certainty that this trust will be respected.

 

Sport England requires the free flow of confidential information from its stakeholders to effectively perform its functions. If Sport England were to breach this trust, the flow of information could diminish, making it more difficult for Sport England to carry out its functions effectively.

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 5

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

The public interest in ensuring that
Sport England can deliberate on important issues, including those connected with carrying out its statutory functions.

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 3

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

The public interest in ensuring that
the public authority is able to
provide advisory responses to planning application matters without creating a chilling effect. The public interest to create a safe
space for planning advice.

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 5

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

 

The public interest in securing the best use of public resources and in ensuring fair commercial competition in a mixed economy

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 3

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

The public interest in allowing Sport England to withhold information which if disclosed, would reduce a stakeholders ability to negotiate or compete in a commercial environment.

 

PUBLIC INTEREST WEIGHTING: 5

 

Prejudice would occur, effect severe

 

Having considered all the above factors, we are satisfied that the balance lies in favour of withholding the information on this occasion. We are therefore refusing to disclose some of the information you have requested.

 

This completes our response to your information request. In reaching our decision we have consulted the relevant guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office and available on its website at www.ico.org.uk

 

As a public body, Sport England is subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. This means you are entitled to complain if you are unhappy with the way we have handled your information request and/or ask us to review our decision. All internal reviews are carried out by a colleague who has not previously been involved in the handling of your information request and we aim to complete them within twenty working days.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of our Internal Review you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. Generally speaking the Information Commissioner will not be able to consider an appeal unless you have first exhausted the Internal Review procedure provided by Sport England.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

www.ico.org.uk

 

Kind regards

Yemisi Abiodun Information Governance Manager   

We have updated our Privacy Statement to reflect the recent changes to data protection law but rest assured, we will continue looking after your personal data just as carefully as we always have. Our Privacy Statement is published on our website, and our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by emailing Gaile Walters

From: FOI <[Sport England request email]>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2020 4:11 PM
To: FOI <[Sport England request email]>; Paul Morgan <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council

Dear Mr Morgan

I write further to your request for information below. Unfortunately we are still not yet in a position to respond to your request.  All our teams and officers are incredibly stretched responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore it has not been possible to respond within our usual timescales.

Please be assured that we have commenced our consideration of your request and will endeavour to respond as soon as possible but latest by 15 January 2021. Please accept my sincere apologies for our delay in responding and any inconvenience this may cause you.

Kind regards

Yemisi Abiodun Information Governance Manager   

We have updated our Privacy Statement to reflect the recent changes to data protection law but rest assured, we will continue looking after your personal data just as carefully as we always have. Our Privacy Statement is published on our website, and our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by emailing Gaile Walters

From: FOI <[Sport England request email]>
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2020 3:44 PM
To: FOI <
[Sport England request email]>; Paul Morgan <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council

Dear Mr Morgan

Thank you for your email requesting correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council. We are handling your request under the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the EIR Regulations).

I am writing to let you know that we have extended the time scale to respond to your request. We have taken this decision under Regulation 7 of the EIR Regulations which allows additional time to be added if a public authority reasonably believes that the complexity and volume of the information requested means that it is impracticable either to comply with the request within the earlier period or to make a decision to refuse to do so.

Our final response will be sent to you not later than 14 December 2020.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards

Yemisi Abiodun Information Governance Manager 

We have updated our Privacy Statement to reflect the recent changes to data protection law but rest assured, we will continue looking after your personal data just as carefully as we always have. Our Privacy Statement is published on our website, and our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by emailing Gaile Walters

From: FOI <[Sport England request email]>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2020 4:35 PM
To: Paul Morgan <
[email address]>; FOI <[Sport England request email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council

Dear Mr Morgan

Thank you for your email in which you request correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council. Your email was received on 18 October 2020 and has been passed to me as I am responsible for responding to requests for information held by Sport England. 

As a public body, Sport England is subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and we will handle your request in accordance with their terms. We will provide you with our full response promptly and usually within twenty working days. In some circumstances we may extend this to allow us to consider the public interest; if this is necessary in your case I will write to you again and explain why.

At this stage it is important to advise you that Sport England, just like many other organisations and the nation generally, is dealing with the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic on human, physical and technological resources. These impacts have led to delays in the delivery of our timescales. Should this affect the delivery of a response to your request we will advise you and request an extension.

I will be in touch again in due course and in any event not later than 13 November 2020. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

Kind regards

Yemisi Abiodun Information Governance Manager 

We have updated our Privacy Statement to reflect the recent changes to data protection law but rest assured, we will continue looking after your personal data just as carefully as we always have. Our Privacy Statement is published on our website, and our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by emailing Gaile Walters

From: Paul Morgan <[email address]>
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2020 10:14 AM
To: FOI <
[Sport England request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Correspondence and communication between Sport England and West Berkshire Council

Dear Sport England,

Under FOI/EIR please could you provide me with copies of all correspondence, notes of telephone calls, emails ( including covering emails) and consultation responses between Sport England and West Berkshire Council between 1st June 2017 and 16th October 2020 with respect to:
1) The West Berkshire Playing Pitch Strategy, and
2) The Newbury Football Ground at Faraday Road, Newbury Berkshire

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,

Paul Morgan

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