Briefing note re partnership working etc

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, National Highways Limited should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Highways England Company Limited,

Please refer to this e-mail from Highways England to Helen Flynn
https://www.cleanhighways.co.uk/wp-conte...

Please let me have a copy of the following items referred to in it.

1. The mandatory requirements
2.The briefing note produced to help partnership working
3. The similar note to be issued to Local Authorities with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads
4. The names of those local authorities

Yours faithfully,

Peter Silverman

Highways England,

This is an automated response:

 

Thank you for your email to Highways England.

 

If you’re reporting a real time issue which requires immediate attention
please call the Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000. 

 

A map of the roads for which we are responsible can be found here
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk....
If the road you’re interested in isn’t on this map it will fall under the
jurisdiction of the local authority.  You can find details of local
authorities using the search facility on the gov.uk website
at: [2]https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council

 

If your email does relate to an issue on Highways England's network it
will be passed to the relevant team within Highways England and they will
respond to you within a maximum of 15 working days.

 

If you’ve made a request under the Freedom of Information Act we will
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Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[6][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
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References

Visible links
1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
2. https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
3. https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...
https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...
4. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HECCC
5. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
6. mailto:[Highways England request email]

FOI Advice,

Dear Mr Silverman
 
Thank you for your request for information about Briefing notes regarding
working partnership  dated 29th October 2018. I am dealing with it under
the terms of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
 
This is because the information requested concerns measures and activities
affecting or likely to affect elements of the environment or affect
factors such as noise, pollution discharges and other releases into the
environment.
 
We aim to issue a response no later than 26th November 2018 if for any
reason this changes we will advise you accordingly in advance.
 
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact our team. Please
remember to quote reference number 766,985 in any future communications.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Andrea Bartlett
FOI Administrator | IT Directorate
Highways England | Woodlands | Manton Lane | Bedford | MK41 7LW
 
 

show quoted sections

SES Official Correspondence,

4 Attachments

Dear Mr Silverman

 

Please find attached a response to your FOI request of 29 October 2018.

 

Thank you for contacting us. If there’s anything else we can help you with
please email or telephone our contact centre, 0300 123 5000 or email
[1][Highways England request email].

 

Kind regards

 

Safety, Engineering & Standards

Official Correspondence Team
Highways England | Woodlands | Manton Lane | Bedford | MK41 7LW
Web: [2]www.highwaysengland.co.uk

 

 

This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.

 

Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[4][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Highways England request email]
2. http://www.highways.gov.uk/
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
4. mailto:[Highways England request email]

Dear SES Official Correspondence,

Thank you for your communication of 26th November. Please refer to the points on the second page.

Point 3 - You have not enclosed the draft document ie the note to LAs with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads.

Point 4. - You either hold a list of local authorities with litter clearing responsibilities or you do not. The fact that you have yet to send them a particular document because it is still in draft is irrelevant.

Please send me a copy of the list or state unequivocally that you do not hold the information.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Silverman

Dear Highways England Company Limited,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Highways England Company Limited's handling of my FOI request 'Briefing note re partnership working etc'.

I had requested the names of those local authorities with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads

You have neither supplied a list of them nor stated whether or not you hold this information in breach of your obligations under the EIRs.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Silverman

Highways England,

This is an automated response:

 

Thank you for your email to Highways England.

 

If you’re reporting a real time issue which requires immediate attention
please call the Customer Contact Centre on 0300 123 5000. 

 

A map of the roads for which we are responsible can be found here
[1]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk....
If the road you’re interested in isn’t on this map it will fall under the
jurisdiction of the local authority.  You can find details of local
authorities using the search facility on the gov.uk website
at: [2]https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council

 

If your email does relate to an issue on Highways England's network it
will be passed to the relevant team within Highways England and they will
respond to you within a maximum of 15 working days.

 

If you’ve made a request under the Freedom of Information Act we will
respond to you within a maximum of 20 working days. Your request will be
dealt with in line with government guidelines:
[3]https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...

 

Please be advised that emails may be monitored for training and quality
assurance purposes.

 

To help us improve our service please click [4]here to complete a short
survey.

 

Kind regards

 

Highways England Customer Contact Centre.

This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.

 

Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[5]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[6][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.

References

Visible links
1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...
2. https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-council
3. https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...
https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...
4. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HECCC
5. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
6. mailto:[Highways England request email]

Dear SES Official Correspondence,

Please refer to my communication of 29th November thanking you for yours of 26th November in which you said you had attached a draft note to LAs with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads.

You have still not sent it to me. I would be grateful if you could do so.

NB this is not part of my request for an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Silverman

Jones, Sian,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Silverman

 

Please find attached a copy of the internal review reference: 768,503 into
the handling of your request made under the Environmental Information
Regulations reference: 766,985.

 

Yours sincerely

Sian Jones| Lead Information Rights Officer | Information & Technology

Highways England | Piccadilly Gate | Store Street | Manchester | M1 2WD

Tel: +44 (0) 300 4705240

Web: http://highwaysengland.co.uk

GTN: 0300 470 5240

 

This email may contain information which is confidential and is intended
only for use of the recipient/s named above. If you are not an intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any copying, distribution,
disclosure, reliance upon or other use of the contents of this email is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please
notify the sender and destroy it.

 

Highways England Company Limited | General enquiries: 0300 123 5000
|National Traffic Operations Centre, 3 Ridgeway, Quinton Business Park,
Birmingham B32 1AF |
[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati... |
[2][Highways England request email]

 

Registered in England and Wales no 9346363 | Registered Office: Bridge
House, 1 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4LZ 

 

Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
2. mailto:[Highways England request email]

SES Official Correspondence,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Silverman

Please find attached the document as requested. This document is in draft format only.

Thank you again for contacting us. If there’s anything else we can help you with please email or telephone our contact centre, 0300 123 5000 or email [Highways England request email].

To help us identify and make improvements to our responses, we’d be very grateful if you could please take our feedback survey by clicking here.

Kind regards

Safety, Engineering & Standards
Official Correspondence Team
Highways England
Web: www.highwaysengland.co.uk

show quoted sections

Peter Silverman left an annotation ()

Complaint to the Information Commissioner – Highways England – Local authorities with litter clearing responsibilities

Complainant: Peter Silverman, 20 Kingsend, Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 7DA 01895 625770

I confirm that to the best of my knowledge I have given you accurate information relating to this complaint. I understand that during any necessary investigations, you may need to disclose the details I have provided to the subject of my complaint to allow them to make a proper response. I also understand that your policy is to destroy documents relating to complaints after six months. I have clearly indicated those documents that you should not destroy and should return to me.

Complaint

Please refer to:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...

On 29th October 2018 I had written to Highways England saying:

Please refer to this e-mail from Highways England to Helen Flynn
https://www.cleanhighways.co.uk/wp-conte...

Please let me have a copy of the following items referred to in it.
1. The mandatory requirements
2.The briefing note produced to help partnership working
3. The similar note to be issued to Local Authorities with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads
4. The names of those local authorities

As a point of explanation, HE run the country’s strategic network of motorways and trunk roads. HE is responsible for cleaning most of the network but, on some of the trunk roads, while they are maintained in every other respect by HE, this responsibility lies with the local authority.

This necessitates a large degree of co-ordination between them and HE. For example, when HE closes a lane for maintenance work they inform the local authority so their workers can access the verges in safety to remove litter. This is the “partnership working” that is being referred to.

HE would therefore of necessity have to hold information regarding the identity of those local authorities i.e. the ones “with litter clearing duties” on the HE network. I assume you will check this point with them in the course of your investigation.

My complaint is that the names of those local authorities have not been supplied.

HE seems to be arguing that as the “similar note” referred to in 3 was in draft and had not been issued to Local Authorities then they did not hold the names of the Local Authorities to whom it was intended to be sent.

In their internal review communication of 25th January in reference to my request for the review in which I had said:

I had requested the names of those local authorities with litter clearing responsibilities on HE trunk roads

You have neither supplied a list of them nor stated whether or not you hold this information in breach of your obligations under the EIRs.

Their Sian Jones wrote:

In my view it is clear from this reply that as the note was still in draft and had not yet been issued to local authorities the information was not held and you were being informed the information was not held in accordance with Section 12(4)(a). Whilst the inclusion of the word ‘section’ in the response was an oversight (as you are aware the appropriate term under the Environmental Information Regulations is ‘Regulation’ rather than ‘Section’) in my view the response is sufficiently clear to answer the question ie that the information was not held.

However, whatever the status of the note at the time of my request - whether it had been issued or not – whether it had been decided not to issue it etc etc - is beside the point. The information requested i.e. the names of those local authorities to whom it would have been sent would have been held and should have been supplied.

Action requested

Please deal with this complaint solely in accordance with your obligations under FOIA S50. I am not asking you to act as a conciliator.

Please consider issuing a Decision Notice requiring HE to provide me with a list of the authorities.

Kind regards
Peter Silverman
01895 625770
07799 404 766
www.cleanhighways.co.uk