Any and All data used to calculate figures for Ash Ranges closure
Dear Ministry of Defence,
Please provide any and all data and figures used to define costs and loss of range hours due to vandalism in a letter to Councillor Manning of Ash Parish Council from Jeremy Quin MP.
I would expect to see line items for each cost and date of each as well as the definition of the lost hours.
Letter Reference MSU/4/6/2/1/is, dated 4th May 2021.
Yours faithfully,
C Cookson
Good Morning
Your request has been logged under our reference 2021/04835 and the target
date for response is 04/06/2021.
Yours sincerely
DIO Secretariat
Good afternoon,
Please see the following attachments in response to your below FOI request.
Kind regards,
DIO Secretariat
Dear Ministry of Defence,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of the Ministry of Defence's handling of my FOI request 'Any and All data used to calculate figures for Ash Ranges closure'.
Please provide the source of this information, as it is different to what other MOD agents has deemed the authoritative source. Other FOI requests to the MOD have been sent to DIO for action, as it has previously been stated that you were not in a position to provide the detail. This does not show a transparent nature or hold the MOD accountable for these figures
On reviewing this FOI and other similar FOI around costs of repairs due to vandalism, it is apparent that the public accountability test has not been met. This information has repeatedly been asked for and is now available. It is unclear where this money has been spent and whether the current restriction in access would have had a positive impact as posited by Mr Quin and others. Without accurate figures of the cost of vandalism on the now-closed areas, the public will still question the closure and the continued un-transparent nature of the MOD and its officers.
Further, specific items or events are not part of a tender and hence not subject to commercial sensitivity as per http://informationrights.decisions.tribu... The likelihood of similar events occurring and impact any commercial interests is very slim. If it assists, we could restrict our access only to those incidents that are part of the now-closed area, as this will limit the amount of information returned.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...
Yours faithfully,
C Cookson
Dear Mr Cookson,
We acknowledge receipt of your email, which asked for an internal review
of the handling of your request under the FOI Act, our reference
FOI2021/04835.
The Department's target for completing internal reviews is 20 working days
from date of receipt and we therefore aim to complete the review and
respond to you by 29 June 2021. While we are working hard to achieve this,
in the interests of providing you with a realistic indication of when you
should expect a response, the majority are currently taking between 20 and
40 working days to complete. The review will involve an independent
assessment of the handling of this request and the outcome.
We should also advise that the measures implemented by the Department to
prevent the spread of COVID-19 may continue to impact upon our ability to
complete the review within the above timescale but we will aim to provide
you with an update, if necessary.
Regards,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Cookson,
As a follow up to our previous correspondence sent to you on 10 June 2021,
it would be useful if you could clarify some points in order to assist
with our review.
Firstly, you have stated that the information provided is “different to
what other MOD agents has deemed the authoritative source”. I would be
grateful if you could provide me with references or links to the
information that you have been previously advised is ‘the authoritative
source’.
Also, it is not clear what you intended as the full scope of your request.
You have asked for “any and all data and figures used to define costs and
loss of range hours”. Although you have stated you expect to see the line
items for each cost, which appears to have been met, an ‘any and all’
request usually mean all information that is held without exception. This
would indicate that the scope of your request may be much wider than the
single line that has been provided to you for each cost and possibly
include a full breakdown of information behind each of the lines provided
to you (for example invoices or work orders etc. If can clarify this point
we will be able to investigate accordingly.
In your letter of appeal you have asked to be provided with ‘the source of
this information’. While this appears to be a new request it may be
something that could be covered within the internal review process under
section 16 (advice and assistance). I would be grateful if you could
explain what recorded information or advice you expect to receive in
response to this element. For example, are you seeking to know the name of
the database/system from which the data was extracted, or the name of the
team that provided the data for the cost and hours to be calculated?
Finally, we note that your request sought the data used to inform a letter
senton 4 May 2021 to the Councillors of Ash Parish Council from Jeremy
Quin MP. I can advise that a letter containing revised figures, following
identification of an error, was issued on 12 May 2021
([1]https://ashparish.org/wp-content/uploads...).
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
References
Visible links
1. https://ashparish.org/wp-content/uploads...
Dear CIO-FOI-IR (MULTIUSER),
Answering your questions in order.
1. I would be grateful if you could provide me with references or links to the information that you have been previously advised is ‘the authoritative source’.
Other requests, such as those listed below have been directed at the MOD / DIO have used the Untoward Occurrence Register as the definitive list of activity, which has discrepancies between detail received and that those lists.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...
2. Also, it is not clear what you intended as the full scope of your request.
The figures published in the letter to Councillor Manning are high level and different from those reported in a presentation given by Col Cook published here https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p....
This presentation and other communications include images of damage outside of the closed area, and as such it is of public interest to confirm
a. Description of repair sufficient enough to locate the repair
b. Date Reported
c. Date Completed
d. Cost of repair
e. Any lost training hours.
The lists provided contain incidents inside and outside of the newly closed area and presumably have been used to drive the costs presented. It is essential for an open and informed discussion on the closure that these figures are produced.
3. are you seeking to know the name of the database/system from which the data was extracted or the name of the team that provided the data for the cost and hours to be calculated?
As these figures have not been available to the public and differ from previous statements of fact (see above) given by the MOD and DIO, I would ask you to provide which department is responsible for producing these figures and to confirm that these are a statement of truth. The published figures seem to have been taken from a larger document, so to understand the authority under which they have been produced is, again, part of the open and honest discussion and is vital for the public not to feel disillusioned with our public figures and representatives.
Finally, I appreciate the note on the new figures produced, but they do not materially enhance or change the request.
Yours sincerely,
C Cookson
Dear CIO-FOI-IR (MULTIUSER),
I have not heard anything from the internal review, which you said would be completed one month ago.
Please let me know the current status
Yours sincerely,
C Cookson
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