Dear Mr Cole,
 
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST
 
The City of London (CoL) acknowledges receipt of your request for
information of 15 February 2014.
 
Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the
statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working
day after they receive a request. The Act does not always require public
authorities to disclose the information which they hold.
 
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the
“Square Mile”, ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a
whole. Please see the following link to a map on the CoL's website, which
shows the area covered:
[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/maps/Pages/explore-the-city.aspx.
The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority
functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information
please see: [2]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Information Officer
Town Clerk’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1209
[3]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
 
 
 

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Cole

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - INFORMATION REQUEST

 

Following your request of 15 February 2014 and our acknowledgement of the
same date, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows:

 

1)     Do you have a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and/or Policy (or
similar)?  If so please attach.

 

This is available on our website-
[1]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/...

 

 

2)     Has this document been adopted by Council or Cabinet (or similar),
if so, when? 

 

Yes, this was adopted by the Court of Common Council in 2007 and updated
in 2010.

 

3)     Has a Councillor been assigned to champion this Strategy/Policy (or
similar), if so, who? 

 

No, we do not have a cabinet structure at the City of London.
Responsibility for oversight is split between the Planning and
Transportation Committee, the Port Health Committee and the Policy and
Resources Committee.

 

 

4)     Is the strategy/policy (or similar) supported by an
action/programme/project plan? If so, please attach.

 

Yes, see attached.

 

 

 

5)     Is this plan delivering on time and to budget? 

 

Yes

 

 

6)     What are those timescales and budget?

 

Timescale is on-going. No separate budget has been established. Actions
have been absorbed into local risk budgets for departments.

 

7)    Are progress reports provided to Cabinet/Council (or similar), if
so, please attach. 

 

Progress reports on individual elements to the strategy are provided to
committee (e.g. flood risk), these are available from our searchable
database  [2]http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/uuC...

 

 

We hope that this response is of assistance.

 

The attached documents contained the names of CoL employees, and this
information has been redacted (removed) from the documents in accordance
with the FOIA exemption at section 40(2).

 

The CoL applies the FOIA s40(2) exemption ('personal information'),
because it considers that a breach of the data protection principles under
the DPA would occur through disclosure of staff names (particularly below
divisional head level), except where these are already routinely in the
public domain.

 

In this instance, we consider that Principle 1 would be breached by
disclosure, ie the principle of fair and lawful processing. We consider
that the names of staff are personal information. The Information Tribunal
has also upheld the view that "to release the name of an individual’s
employer would be to release significant personal data" (Appeal Number
EA/2007/0058). For a public authority to release names of staff would
clearly be to disclose the employer of those staff. In view of the
Tribunal's statement, we have to consider whether disclosure would
constitute a breach of the Data Protection Principles under the Data
Protection Act 1998 (DPA). In this instance, we consider that Principle 1
would be breached by disclosure, ie the Principle of Fair and Lawful
Processing. There is no general expectation by staff, other than those
higher managers whose names are already normally in the public domain in
connection with the authority, that the name of their employer should
automatically be disclosed through release of their names following FOI
requests.

 

A public authority has to consider a disclosure under the FOIA as a
disclosure to the world. We note the Information Tribunal’s statement that
“Disclosure under [the] FOIA is effectively an unlimited disclosure to the
public as a whole, without conditions” (Information Tribunal Appeal
Decision EA/2006/0011 & 0013), which was also referred to by the
Information Commissioner (Information Commissioner's Decision Notice FS
50294078). We would therefore have to consider disclosure of the names as
a comprehensive overriding of the DPA, without limit.

 

Finally, we note that the website of the information Commissioner's Office
(ICO) shows an extremely limited disclosure of employee names, to a degree
which implies a very high threshold for the unlimited publication of such
information in relation to a public authority which falls within the scope
of the FOIA.

 

Under the FOIA the section 40(2) exemption is an absolute exemption, ie it
is not subject to the public interest test.

 

If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your
enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address:
[3][email address]. For a link to the CoL’s FOI complaints
procedure, please visit the following page:
[4]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the
FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL’s FOI Complaints
Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information
Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone:
(01625) 545700.  Website: [5]http://www.ico.org.uk/.

 

The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and
port health authority.

 

The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not
give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for
example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or
to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be
reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for
non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news
reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.

 

Yours sincerely,

James Goodsell

AIN Representative

 

THIS E-MAIL AND ANY ATTACHED FILES ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND MAY BE LEGALLY
PRIVILEGED. If you are not the addressee, any disclosure, reproduction,
copying, distribution or other dissemination or use of this communication
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error
please notify the sender immediately and then delete this e-mail.
Opinions, advice or facts included in this message are given without any
warranties or intention to enter into a contractual relationship with the
City of London unless specifically indicated otherwise by agreement,
letter or facsimile signed by a City of London authorised signatory. Any
part of this e-mail which is purely personal in nature is not authorised
by the City of London. All e-mail through the City of London's gateway is
potentially the subject of monitoring. All liability for errors and
viruses is excluded. Please note that in so far as the City of London
falls within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004, it may need to disclose this
e-mail. Website: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/...
2. http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/uuC...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback
5. http://www.ico.gov.uk/