Badger cull Marksmen training company information

Dear Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

Please will you confirm the name of the company you employed to provide marksmen training for the badger cull pilots.

Please also clarify if you had sight of final documents, as opposed to drafts, of all training materials before you approved their course.

Your document 'Establishing and running a badger culling training course and assessing competence: minimum course requirements' states that you require the training company to provide a report on how many courses have been run, the attendance for each, and number of attendees passing/failing/re-takes. I would like this information please.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Nicki Rawson

Helpline, Defra (CCU), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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TBADMIN (FFG), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Rawson,

Please see the attached response to your requests for information.

<<RFI 6148 and 6149.pdf>>

Yours Sincerely,

Defra TB Programme

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

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Dear Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs's handling of my FOI request 'Badger cull Marksmen training company information'.

I asked;
'Your document 'Establishing and running a badger culling training course and
assessing competence: minimum course requirements' states that you require the
training company to provide a report on how many courses have been run, the
attendance for each, and number of attendees passing/failing/re-takes. I would like
this information please.'

You replied;
'This information is the property of the training provider and, while Defra holds this
information, the training provider has not given permission for its release. This detailed
information is therefore being withheld under regulation 12(5)(f), the interests of third
parties. However, we can confirm that around 12 courses were run and up to 200
contractors were trained.'

As this information pertains simply to numbers, and the training provider is not identified, your reason for witholding the information is invalid. The interests of the person (training company) providing the information to the public authority will not be adversely damaged by disclosure, and I invite you to explain how you think this would apply. Considering that public safety is a matter of public interest, this outweighs the public interest in maintaining the exception in this case.

You have cited exception 12(5)(a) in refusing to disclose details of the training provider 'as the release of their name and location would expose them to intimidation.' What is your evidence for this assumption?

You have cited exception 12 (4)(e)in refusing to disclose details of your scoring system. I invite you to explicitly detail how disclosure of a scoring process in awarding a training contract, which should be open to public scrutiny, 'seriously impedes the workings of government.'

The submission could be anonymised, and so I believe that your reason for exception 12 (5) (a) in disclosing the scoring system is invalid. I suggest that a 'provider A' and 'provider B' format would suffice.

You have stated that during 2013 'there were a number of cases where companies and individuals associated with the culls
were subject to threats, intimidation and harassment'. I invite you to provide evidence, including details of police charges and convictions (i.e. non-anecdotal evidence) of such, as you have used this statement as a basis for refusing to disclose the submission to ministers which I believe is invalid and based upon hearsay.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...

Yours faithfully,

Nicki Rawson

Helpline, Defra (CCU), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Thank you for your email which has been received by the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).  This is an automatic
response acknowledging receipt of your email; there is no need to reply.

We have a target of replying to emails within 15 working days, however, we
will reply sooner if we can.  If we feel that the issues raised do not
fall within the Department's responsibilities, we will transfer your email
to the relevant government department and ask that they reply to you
directly. 

If you need a quick response, please call the Defra Helpline on 08459 33
55 77, or from outside the UK call +44 (0) 20 7238 6951 (Minicom/textphone
for the deaf and hard of hearing: 0845 300 1998).  

Please note that requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs) will receive a
response within 20 workings days after the date of receipt of your
request, subject to this deadline being extended under certain limited
circumstances allowed in the legislation.  If your request is for your own
personal data (i.e. Subject Access Request) under the Data Protection Act
then the deadline is 40 calendar days – although please note that the
deadline will count from the date that Defra receives the £10 fee (if a
fee is required) and/or any further information reasonably required to
locate the information.

The [1]Defra pages on GOV.UK contain a lot of information about Defra’s
work that may be of interest.  Some of the popular pages are:

·       [2]Latest Defra news

·       [3]Flooding and coastal change

·       [4]Travelling with Pets

·       [5]Waste and recycling

·       [6]Reducing bovine tuberculosis (including information about
badger control)

·       [7]Fishing (including Common Fisheries Policy)

·       [8]Animal Welfare in Transport

·      

Regards

Customer Contact Unit

Defra

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

This email and any attachments is intended for the named recipient only.
If you have received it in error you have no authority to use, disclose,
store or copy any of its contents and you should destroy it and inform the
sender.
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once it has left our systems.
Communications on Defra's computer systems may be monitored and/or
recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other
lawful purposes.

References

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Allimadi, Jimmy (Defra), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

This message has been hidden. This message has been removed from public view as was, apparently accidentally addressed to someone other than the requester and contained that person's name and address. The substantive text stated: Thank you for your request for internal review of a response you received 3 December 2013, which we received on 24 January 2014. We are dealing with your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs). The EIRs stipulate that an internal review should be completed within 40 working days (see Regulation 11 (4). However, we aim to deal with reviews within 20 working days from the date we received it (i.e. by 21 February 2014). If for any reason we are unable to meet this deadline we will keep you fully informed. If you have any queries about this letter please contact me. If you are the requester, then you may sign in to view the message. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Transparency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Rawson,

 

Please see attached, herewith a response to your request for an internal
review of the response you had received regarding badger cull Marksmen
training.

 

Kind regards

 

 

jimmy

 

Jimmy Allimadi |Transparency Publishing Team | Knowledge Transparency and
Resilience I Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | Direct
line: 020 7238 3075 | Email: [1][email address]|
Address: Zone 4D,  Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR.

 

Avoid confusing others – add your photo to the Corporate Directory.
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show quoted sections

Dear Transparency,

Thank you for your reply.

Your information is incorrect. I made an FOI request on 4th January 2014, not 6th of January.

On the 11th February, Jimmy Allimadi published a response to RFI 5915 on my request history which pertained to someone else’s FOI – and which also contravened the Data Protection Act by disclosing their name and address on a public website.

I requested an internal review on the 3rd February. Jimmy Allimadi responded to my request for an internal review on the 28th February 2014, 20 working days later.

Regulation 12(4)(e) - disclosure of internal communications
I do not accept your reason for non-disclose of ministerial communications ‘because good government depends on good decision-making’. This assertion is as nebulous as it is ridiculous.

Regulation 12(5)(a) - public safety

I do not accept your reason for withholding information based upon public safety because ‘charges could not be brought as the details of the contractors involved would become public knowledge’. It is common knowledge that personal details of those accused of crime, and those as victims of crime, are not made public.

You have stated ‘Therefore people responsible for harassment, trespass and intimidation would have access to the personal details of the people they had already threatened therefore increasing the probability of intimidation taking place at people’s homes’. This is speculation based upon the incorrect assertion that a supposed victim of crime has their details disclosed to the alleged perpetrator of crime. This is not the case, and so I reiterate that this is ridiculous and you were wrong to withhold this information based on a false premise, and biased speculation.

For your information, the link to alleged assault you cited was the arrest of a badgercull contractor, not a protestor. This rather renders your argument about NFU contractors being victims of harassment rather inadequate. In any case, I invited you to cite actual evidence of harassment/intimidation, not anecdotal evidence, which you have still failed to do. Therefore I remain unsatisfied that your refusal to disclose information is in the public interest.

I, again, invite you to evidence your assumption

‘Whilst most anti cull activists undertake peaceful protest, there is a core of individuals who can and will cross the line of acceptable behaviour putting themselves and others at risk’.

How do you know this? Can you provide a reference to evidence this statement? Who are the core of individuals? How many is a core? Please define ‘cross the line’? How do they put others at risk? Where is your factual evidence please – not anecdotal. Until I see factual evidence to support what I believe to be bias and supposition, I do not accept your reasons for non disclosure of information requested. Media reports are not sufficient to uphold your argument in this case.

Regulation 12(5)(f) - the interests of the person who provided the information

A recent publication from FOI requests have revealed a catalogue of errors on the part of badgercull marksmen. You are stating that, even though you hold information on course assessment results, you will not disclose it because the training provider has not consented to disclosure. Have you asked yourself why? This information is in the public interest, as I suggest that marksmen may have not been trained to the required standard. Disclosure of training records would confirm or refute this. Therefore I do not agree with your refusal to disclose for this reason.

I have referred the matter to the ico.

Yours sincerely,

Nicki Rawson

Transparency, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

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Communications on Defra's computer systems may be monitored and/or
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