Cambridge Neighbour Action Group 'NAG' committee minutes
Dear Cambridge City Council,
Could you please release the agendas, papers and minutes for
all Cambridge Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) meetings held since February 2012
Yours faithfully,
John Lawton
Dear Cambridge City Council,
please could you acknowledge receipt of my FOI request?
Yours faithfully,
John Lawton
Dear Mr Lawton
I apologise for not sending an acknowledgement to your request, this was
an oversight on our part.
Please accept this as an acknowledgement of your request.
regards
Eleanor Dent
Cambridge City Council
>>> John Lawton <[FOI #126452 email]> 04/09/12 9:55
PM >>>
Dear Cambridge City Council,
please could you acknowledge receipt of my FOI request?
Yours faithfully,
John Lawton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
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[FOI #126452 email]
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Dear FOI,
do you have a date please when the information will be released?
Yours sincerely,
John Lawton
Dear Mr Lawton
You will receive a response within 20 working days following receipt of
your request.
regards
Eleanor Dent
>>> On 16/09/2012 at 08:43, John Lawton
<[FOI #126452 email]> wrote:
Dear FOI,
do you have a date please when the information will be released?
Yours sincerely,
John Lawton
Dear Mr Lawton
Thank you for your request of 20 August 2012 where you requested
agendas, papers and minutes for all Cambridge Neighbourhood Action Group
(NAG) meetings held since February 2012.
We do hold information falling within the terms of your request, however
we need more time to consider your request.
I wish to advise you that the following exemption applies to the
information that you have requested: Section 36(2)(b)(ii), information
that would, or be likely to, inhibit the free and frank exchange of views
for the purposes of deliberation.
By virtue of section 10 (3), where public authorities have to consider the
balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have
to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the
circumstances.
Cambridge City Council has not yet reached a decision on the balance of
the public interest. Due to the need to consider, in all the circumstances
of the case, where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to
the information that you have requested, the Department will not be able
to respond to your request in full within 20 working days.
I hope to let you have a response by 16 October 2012.
If you are not happy with the way in which your request has been dealt
with please contact Antoinette Jackson, Chief Executive. You may also
contact the Information Commissioner if you are still not happy with the
way your request has been dealt with. The Information Commissioner’s
address is:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Regards
Eleanor Dent
Cambridge City Council
>>> On 20/08/2012 at 14:12, John Lawton
<[FOI #126452 email]> wrote:
Dear Cambridge City Council,
Could you please release the agendas, papers and minutes for
all Cambridge Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) meetings held since
February 2012
Yours faithfully,
John Lawton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #126452 email]
Is [Cambridge City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of
Information requests to Cambridge City Council? If so, please
contact us using this form:
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[2]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offic...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your
web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
Dear Mr Lawton,
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request for disclosure of:
“Agendas, papers and minutes for all the Cambridge Neighbourhood Action
Group (NAG) meetings since February 2012.”
The reason for the delay was that we needed to consider whether or not the
information you requested should be treated as exempt under section 36 of
the Freedom of Information Act, 2000. Section 36 applies in cases where
there would, or would be likely to be prejudice to the effective conduct
of public affairs. A decision on whether section 36 is engaged may only be
taken by the “qualified person” who, for the City Council, is its
Monitoring Officer, Simon Pugh.
The Council’s Monitoring Officer’s opinion is that the exemption in
section 36(2)(b)(ii) is engaged. The relevant part of the section states:
“Information to which this section applies is exempt information if, in
the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, disclosure of the
information under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the
free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation.”
The Neighbourhood Action Group is a joint agency working group, which is
responsible for agreeing actions and taking responsibility for anti-social
behaviour issues and priorities raised at area neighbourhood panel
meetings (Area Committees). The Neighbourhood Action Group is made up of
officers from the City Council, County Council, Fire and Rescue Service
and Cambridgeshire Police.
It will take issues and priorities identified at area committee meetings
and consider how best to address them. In order to be able to arrive at
the best solutions to meet local concerns, officers from the four
statutory bodies need a safe space to explore all possible solutions to
the problems experienced by local residents.
If officers are not allowed a safe space in which to explore options then,
in the Monitoring Officer’s judgment, it is more likely than not that they
will be inhibited from putting forward ideas which may be politically
controversial, which are not (at that stage) properly thought through,
which may not be in line with the policy approaches of the member
organisations or which may be reported adversely in the press. There is
some experience of this happening and concern has been expressed by
members of the group.
The need is for safe space to formulate policy and practice, with decided
or proposed courses of action being reported publicly to area committees.
The Monitoring Officer’s decision, therefore, is that disclosure of the
papers and minutes for all the Cambridge Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG)
meetings since February 2012 would be likely to inhibit the free and frank
exchange of views between members of the group for the purposes of
deliberation. However, the agendas requested are pro-forma agendas and the
Monitoring Officer does not consider that their disclosure would have an
inhibiting effect.
The exemption contained in Section 36 is a qualified exemption, which
means that its application is subject to a public interest test.
There is clearly public interest in the activities of the Neighbourhood
Action Group, as evidenced by this and previous requests for minutes of
its meetings. There is also a public interest in ensuring that the Group
is approaching its task properly, is considering all reasonable courses of
action and is reaching proper conclusions; i.e. that it is working
effectively in proposing and implementing measures to tackle issues and
priorities raised at local level. There is also an intrinsic public
interest in transparency.
However, there is a public interest in the Group working effectively. This
is what the section 36 exemption (prejudice to the effective conduct of
public affairs) is about. The Group tackles very important issues of
direct concern to local communities and there is a strong public interest
that its work is not impeded. For the reasons set out above, the
Monitoring Officer has concluded that disclosure of the information
requested would be likely to prejudice the free and frank exchange of
views within the Group and that it is likely that this would be likely to
inhibit the Group in developing solutions to the anti-social behaviour
issues it is addressing.
In balancing the two competing aspects of the public interest, the
Monitoring Officer is mindful that there is transparency about the tasks
that the Group is asked to tackle, and there is transparency through
reporting back to Area Committees of the measures taken or proposed in
response to the brief they have been given.
Taking together the need for the Group to work effectively, which involves
facilitating the free and frank exchange of views, and the reporting back
to the area committees of outcomes from the Group’s deliberation, the
Monitoring Officer has concluded that the balance of the public interest
lies in withholding the information requested (with the exception of the
agendas) pursuant to section 36(2)(b)(ii).
Accordingly the agendas for the NAG meetings since February 2012 are
attached.
If you are not happy with the way in which your request has been dealt
with please contact Antoinette Jackson, Chief Executive. You may also
contact the Information Commissioner if you are still not happy with the
way your request has been dealt with. The Information Commissioner’s
address is:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Regards
Eleanor Dent
Cambridge City Council
>>> On 16/09/2012 at 08:43, John Lawton
<[FOI #126452 email]> wrote:
Dear FOI,
do you have a date please when the information will be released?
Yours sincerely,
John Lawton
Dear Cambridge City Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Cambridge City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Cambridge Neighbour Action Group 'NAG' committee minutes' for the following reasons:
Firstly, this request was not handled within the proper timescale.
Secondly, that my request for minutes was unreasonably refused due to representations made by members of the 'NAG' that they would be unable to debate freely if their comments were disclosed in the meeting minutes. Such persons would have the option to make unminuted comments or to ask for their comments to be redacted from the published minutes.
Thirdly, that the supposed agendas released contained no useful information. Not even information on the participants of the NAG was disclosed. I believe this is a snub on the part of the NAG / Council as a previous request had been met satisfactorily (see below).
Background:
A previous request for minutes of NAG meeting was mostly met, and minutes were released in full but with a few blanked out words or phrases. This was satisfactory to me.
See: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...
I would like to know what has changed from before and what representations were made to whom and by whom over this matter leading to the eventual decision that was made not to disclose any of the minutes to me.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...
Yours faithfully,
John Lawton
Dear FOI,
could you please confirm that you have received my request for an internal review dated 10th January.
Yours sincerely,
John Lawton
Dear Mr Lawton
Further to your email dated 10 January 2013, I confirm receipt of your request for an internal review of the Council's response to your Freedom of Information request relating to Cambridge Neighbour Action Group (NAG) committee minutes.
The Council has 20 working days to deal with your request and we will respond to you by 7 February 2013.
Yours sincerely
Kerry Hewitt
Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive
Cambridge City Council
T: 01223 457003
Dear Mr Lawton
Further to your request for an internal review of your FOI request about the Cambridge Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) minutes, I now attach the Council's response.
Yours sincerely
Kerry Hewitt
Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive
Cambridge City Council
T: 01223 457003
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