Cancellation of Bonspiel Lake of Menteith

The request was successful.

Dear Stirling Council,

Please provide correspondence e mails or any other documentation between Stirling Council and Police Scotland , The Emergency Services (Scottish Fire and Rescue) and the Royal Scottish Curling Club event known as the 'bonspiel' which was planned to take place on Lake of Menteith in January 2010 together with minutes, decisions or internal documents relating to this decision.

Yours faithfully,

lennie fuller

FOI FOI, Stirling Council

Dear Lennie Fuller

Your request for information has been logged and a response will be issued no later than 27 Aug 2014. The request has been allocated reference: FOI/6505.

We are interpreting your request to mean Police and Fire organisations that were in place at the time.

Yours sincerely

Catriona Lawrence

Records & Information Compliance Team
Stirling Council
Viewforth, Stirling FK8 2ET
01786 233988
[Stirling Council request email]

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FOI FOI, Stirling Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fuller,

I refer to your recent request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and can now provide you with the following response to your request.

Please find attached one email exchange between Bob Jack, the Chief Executive of Stirling Council at the time and police officers of Central Scotland Police, the predecessors of Police Scotland. I can confirm that the attachment referred to in the email is no longer held by the Council.

Additional information we have constitutes legal advice provided by Stirling Council to Central Scotland Police, the predecessors of Police Scotland and as such the information is held by Stirling Council on behalf of Police Scotland and its predecessor. Section 3(2)(a)(i) of FOISA makes it clear that if a Scottish authority holds information on behalf of another person, then the information is not held by the authority for the purposes of FOISA. We therefore serve notice in terms of Section 17, that we do not hold the information. We have now sent the information to Police Scotland.

I can also confirm that Stirling Council holds no correspondence with the Fire & Rescue Services or with the Royal Scottish Curling Club. We therefore serve notice in terms of Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 in relation to this part of your request.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information has been dealt with you are entitled to request a review of the actions and decisions made by the Council in relation to your request. Your request for review must be in writing or some other permanent form stating your name and address for correspondence, and specifying the request for information to which your request for review relates and why you are dissatisfied with the response.

You must make your request for review not later than 40 working days after the expiry of the 20 working day period of response to your initial request by the Council or not later than 40 working days after the receipt by you of the information provided, any fees notice issued or any notification of refusal or partial refusal.

Your request for review should be addressed in the first instance to:
Records & Information Compliance Manager, Stirling Council, Viewforth, STIRLING FK8 2ET email: [Stirling Council request email]

The Records & Information Compliance Manager will then arrange for an appropriate officer to undertake a review.

Please note that in any email you must state your name.

If you are dissatisfied with how your request for a review has been dealt with, then you are entitled to ask the Scottish Information Commissioner to investigate your case. You must ask the Scottish Information Commissioner no later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of the notice or decision you are dissatisfied with or within 6 months of the expiry of the period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council of your request for review. You should write to;

The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS, Tel: 01334 464610 Email: [email address]

You may also appeal against a decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner but on a point of law only. Any such appeal must be made within 42 days of the date of intimation of the Commissioner's decision notice.

Yours sincerely,

Barbara McMillan

Records & Information Compliance Team
Stirling Council
Viewforth, Stirling FK8 2ET
01786 233988
[Stirling Council request email]

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Dear Stirling Council,

Please provide correspondence e mails or any other documentation between Stirling Council and Police Scotland , The Emergency Services (Scottish Fire and Rescue) and the Royal Scottish Curling Club event known as the 'bonspiel' which was planned to take place on Lake of Menteith in January 2010 together with minutes, decisions or internal documents relating to this decision.

Yours faithfully,

lennie fuller

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Dear Stirling Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Stirling Council's handling of my FOI request 'Cancellation of Bonspiel Lake of Menteith'.

stirling Council appears to no longer hold information that relates to the case. Please confirm if this is in breach of record retention policy.
In addition I find it surprising that only 1 e mail on the topic exists. Please review your information for additional items.

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

Yours faithfully,

lennie fuller

FOI FOI, Stirling Council

Dear Mr Fuller

We have received your request for review relating to your recent request for information, logged by us as FOI/6505.

The review must be completed within 20 working days, in this case no later than 24 Sep 2014.

The Review Officer undertaking the review will be in touch in due course.

Yours sincerely

Catriona Lawrence

Records & Information Compliance Team
Stirling Council
Viewforth, Stirling FK8 2ET
01786 233988
[Stirling Council request email]

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Lynette Paterson, Stirling Council

Dear Mr Fuller

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (“the Act”) - Request
for Review
Our Ref: FOI/6505

I refer to your email of 27 August 2014 seeking a review of the
Council’s response to your information request dated 29 July 2014. As
per our FOI review process, your request has now been passed to the
Chief Executive’s Office for investigation and response.


Request for Information
Your request for information sought the following:-

"Correspondence, emails or any other documentation between Stirling
Council and Police Scotland, the Emergency Services (Scottish Fire and
Rescue) and the Royal Scottish Curling Club event known as the
‘bonspiel’ which was planned to take place on Lake of Menteith in
January 2010 together with minutes, decisions or internal documents
relating to this decision.”

In its response to your request for information dated 27 August 2014
the Council confirmed that it does hold a small amount of correspondence
relevant to your request and disclosed an email exchange between Bob
Jack, the Chief Executive of the Council at that time and Central
Scotland Police officers, predecessors of Police Scotland.

Additional correspondence constituting legal advice provided by the
Council to Central Scotland Police was also identified during this
search. Where a local authority holds information on behalf of another
person, then it is deemed to be not held for the purposes of the Act.
Notice was therefore given under Section 17 of the Act that the
information was not held and I agree with the Council’s decision in
this regard.

Request for Review
In your request for review email of 27 August 2014, you state the
following:-

“Stirling Council appears to no longer hold information that relates
to the case. Please confirm if this is in breach of record retention
policy. In addition I find it surprising that only 1 email on the topic
exists. Please review your information for additional items.”

It is presumed that your reference to ‘information no longer held’
refers to an attachment forming part of an email exchange dated 14
January 2010 between Bob Jack and Chief Superintendent Gordon Samson, in
which Mr Samson sought the Council’s confirmation that its position
was accurately reflected in a proposed parliamentary question response.

I confirm that the attachment is no longer held by the Council. I am
satisfied that full searches have been carried out in all relevant email
accounts to ensure there is no additional information held within the
scope of your request.

With regards to record retention, there are no statutory requirements
relating to the retention of email documents of this nature. The
Council does have internal retention practices although formal policies
have yet to be approved by the Council’s Heads of Services. The draft
retention schedule for Chief Executive’s Service specifies a retention
period of 1 year for email enquiries.

Notwithstanding the proposed 1 year limit, current standard practice
within Chief Executive’s Service is to retain hard copy day
correspondence for a period of 2 years. Electronic mail is cleared
after 2 years and emails with attachments are regularly ‘stripped’,
with the attachment only being saved if required. Given the passage of
time and the nature of the enquiry, there was no requirement to retain
the attachment. Indeed, the email exchange itself only exists due to
the method of email management used by the PA at that time, being the
movement of ‘sent’ items to a specific ‘folder’.

As reviewing officer, I am satisfied that there has been no breach of
record retention policy.


Summary of Review
Section 21 (4) of the Act sets out the options available to a Scottish
public authority upon receipt of a requirement for review. The
authority may, as respects the request for information to which the
requirement relates:-

(a) confirm a decision complained of, with or without such
modifications as it considers appropriate;
(b) substitute for any such decision a different decision; or
(c) reach a decision, where the complaint is that no decision had been
reached.

Having considered the scope of your request and the Council’s
response, together with the relevant legislation and guidance issued by
the Scottish Information Commissioner, I am satisfied that a
comprehensive search has been carried out and that all information
relevant to your request has been located, reviewed and provided.

If you are dissatisfied with how your request for review has been dealt
with, then you are entitled to ask the Scottish Information Commissioner
to investigate your case. You must ask the Scottish Information
Commissioner no later than 6 months after the date of receipt by you of
the notice or decision you are dissatisfied with, or within 6 months of
the expiry of the period of 20 working days from receipt by the Council
of your request for review.

You should write to:

The Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
(Tel 01334 464610)

Email: [email address]

You may also appeal against a decision of the Scottish Information
Commissioner but on a point of law only. Any such appeal must be made
within 42 days of the date of intimation of the Commissioner’s
decision notice.

Yours sincerely





Lynette Paterson
Performance & Improvement Analyst
Chief Executive’s Service

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