Dear Mr Richards,

Thank you for your e-mail and I apologise for the delay acknowledging receipt.

We will review the information that we hold relating to your request and a response will be sent as soon as possible but in any case within 20 working days of the receipt of your request on the 10th August 2011.

Kind regards,

Sarina Young
Customer Service Co-Ordinator
British Waterways  |  The Kiln  |  Mather Road  |  Newark  |  NG24 1FB  | Tel:  01636 675740 | Mob:  07785 295 274 | Fax:  01636 705584 |
Find out more about the exciting new waterways charity for England and Wales here http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/charity
Follow the BW Customer Service team on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BWCustServ 

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Dear Mr Richards,

I am writing further to your request and following your complai9nt to the information commissioner's office.

Firstly, I would like to apologise sincerely for the length of time it has taken to respond to this request, I hope that it has not caused you too much inconvenience.

I now attach the Board papers for the July Board meeting together with the minutes of the June Audit Committee meeting.

The June minutes of the Remuneration Committee are exempt from disclosure as their contents comprise material the disclosure of which would, or would be likely to, inhibit the free and frank provision of advice and the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation, Section 36 (Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs) 2 (b)(i)(ii).

Kindest regards,

Sarina Young
Customer Service Co-Ordinator
British Waterways  |  The Kiln  |  Mather Road  |  Newark  |  NG24 1FB  | Tel:  01636 675740 | Mob:  07785 295 274 | Fax:  01636 705584 |
In April 2012 the canals and rivers that British Waterways cares for and maintains in England and Wales will become part of a new charity called the Canal & River Trust.
Want to know more? Go to - www. waterscape.com/findoutmore
Follow the BW Customer Service team on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BWCustServ 

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Dear Mr Richards

(1)     Information withheld from the disclosures made in response to your
request were (unless stated by exception below) all in reliance upon the
exemption contained in s.43(2) Freedom of Information Act 2000 because the
information withheld would or would be likely to, if disclosed, damage the
commercial interests of a person.  In these cases the information withheld
concerned the terms under which commercial property transactions were
entered into (including price) in the context of a competitive market and
disclosure would, or would be likely to, damage the interests of the
counter-party to BW in the transaction.  In some cases the information
withheld was competitive terms under which BW would be prepared to enter
into transactions disclosure of which would, or would be likely to,
prejudice the commercial interests of BW.

(2)    BW considers that it is in the public interest to maintain the
exemption where so replied upon.  The reasons for this are (a) a very
substantial part of BWs overall revenues required to support its public
activities are derived from competitive commercial activities; (b) by
s.134 Transport Act 1968 BW is obliged to carry on these activities as if
it “were a company engaged in a commercial enterprise”; (c) disclosure of
information that would, or would be likely to, prejudice BWs commercial
interests or those of a counter-party would threaten the commercial
revenues sought from such activity. A risk of loss or reduction of
revenues available to be spent on the public functions of BW would be
contrary to  the public interest.  Furthermore information on the overall
performance of BW in conducting its commercial activities is available in
aggregated form in its published Annual Accounts and the public interest
in being able to judge such performance is facilitated by that provision
of information.

(3)    The  withholding of information from the documentation disclosed in
response to your request that was not in reliance of the exemption in 
s.43(2) FoI Act 2000 are as follows:

a.       In the finance report at section 7 (Amendment to BW Bank Mandate)
and the appendix to the Board minutes the names of persons permitted to
authorise bank transactions, and the process by which such authorisations
are made, were withheld from disclosure as disclosure would, or would be
likely to, prejudice the prevention of crime.  The exemption of such
information from disclosure is permitted by s.31(1)(a) FoI Act 2000;

b.       In the minutes of the June meeting of the Remuneration Committee
information in section 4 was withheld in reliance upon s.22 (Information
intended for future publication; and  s.36(2)(b)(i) and (ii) and s.36(c). 
It is intended (and was intended at that time) that information on the
bench-marking of director remuneration be published.  This intention was
publicly announced at the annual meeting of BW in October 2011. The
information withheld is information needed to inform the remuneration
committee for the purposes of determining benchmark levels for the
remuneration of executive directors and is being used for the purposes of
negotiating terms of remuneration with those directors.  Those
negotiations are on-going though closer to conclusion. The benchmark
information will be published once the negotiations are concluded but
premature disclosure in advance of the conclusion of those negotiations
would be damaging to the interests of BW (and therefore the effective
conduct of its public affairs) as it would hinder the free and frank
exchange of views and provision of advice for the purposes of (i) agreeing
the negotiating strategy of BW and (ii) conducting the negotiations
themselves.

c.       The qualified person in whose opinion the exemptions referred to
in (b) above applied (such that disclosure in advance of the conclusion of
negotiations and subsequent publication would prejudice the effective
conduct of public affairs) was Tony Hales, Chairperson of BW.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Johnson

Secretary to the Board

on behalf of British Waterways.