Common Purpose

Neil Wilby made this Freedom of Information request to Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

3 followers

The request was partially successful.

Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC),

As part of a wider journalistic enquiry this Freedom of Information Act request has surfaced:

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

In this connection, may I request disclosure of the following information via the Act:

A. With regard to Questions 1. and 2. in the request made by Simon Hodgson (a candidate in the recent Oldham Council local elections) what searches were undertaken by OMBC to arrive at the zero totals in both cases.

Taken at its face, and viewed the lens of an investigative journalist at least, they would, without canvassing every single OMBC employee, past and present, back to 1989, be very difficult conclusions to arrive at, without any form of qualification attached to them. Particularly, as I know of one present employee who was Common Purpose trained, albeit by a different organisation in the Region.

B. Similarly, with regard to Question 3 in Mr Hodgson's request, how were searches of accounts conducted all the way back to 1989 in order to arrive at the conclusion that there was zero spend. That may, of course, be the correct answer - but the methodology is important for the wider public to understand.

C. Question 4 in Mr Hodgson's request is, with respect to him, poorly framed, but the query raised in the instant request is related to that raised in my Question 3. How many years were searched and did this not present an overcost issue with a potential Section 12 exemption to be applied?

D. With regard to Question 5, was Cllr Fielding asked verbally regarding his Common Purpose status or via written communication?

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wilby
Investigative Journalist

Twitter: Neil_Wilby
Web: neilwilby/.com

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I acknowledge with thanks your request for information; this request has been considered as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

As such, your request may take up to 20 working days to be processed and has been passed on to an appropriate officer.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has recognised the unprecedented challenges all are facing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and that people may experience delays when making requests for information during the pandemic.
Please be aware that your response may not be complete in whole or in part. This is due to government wide measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Oldham Council is currently handling a large volume of business-critical work aimed towards the protection and safeguarding of residents during the COVID-19 outbreak, and as such the business area may not be able to respond to your request within the expected timeframe or provide full information for the completion of your request.
If you have any comments or questions in the meantime, please direct them to [email address]

Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information that you have requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with the provisions of that Act.

Should you have any queries, please contact: [Oldham Council request email]

Yours faithfully,

Information Management Team
Oldham Council
Level 14
Civic Centre
West Street
Oldham OL1 1UL

[email address]

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Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC),

Contents of the Council's acknowledgement is noted.

Please be aware of the following points:

1. Central Government has not granted emergency relief to any public authority in terms of their lawful obligations under the Freedom of Information Act ("the Act") during the present virus epidemic:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/coronavirus

2. Similarly, on the Information Commissioner's ("ICO") website, in the section specifically relating to the Act, there is no announcement regarding the virus epidemic. Indeed, a non-exhaustive check of the same website reveals that the neither of the words "epidemic" nor "pandemic" appear.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

3. It is trite that, in any event, the ICO is a statutory regulator (and a notably poor one it is respectfully submitted), not a legislative body.

4. To an investigative journalist at least, it is, therefore, a curiosity as to how the proposition was advanced, and communicated, by the ICO to public authorities that they could abrogate Parliament's specific directions on the basis of a health issue that rates no mention at all on their own website. Can OMBC assist with this, please?

5. It is also noteworthy, within these submissions, that the four other bodies from whom disclosure has been sought over the last five years in the Greater Manchester Region (GMP, GMCA, GMPCP, GMPF) all routinely break the law (FOIA, DPA, GDPR, CPIA). GMP to the extent that at least one request took over two years to finalise, long before SARS-CoV-2 became an issue. The OMBC chief executive was/is lead chief executive of GMPCP. The OMBC Director of Strategy is a former assistant chief constable in GMP.

6. As a journalist, and experienced information right practitioner, it is respectfully submitted that the instant information request would take a competent, qualified officer less than two hours to finalise and an experienced, competent manager less than an hour to quality assure. The disclosure sought is contained in a single file held in the Information Management department relating to finalisation of a previous information request made by Simon Hodgson.

7. Readers and other users of this WhatDoTheyKnow website - and thousands of followers on social media - might, very fairly, ask why the matters in the preceding paragraphs have been so laboriously set out. The answer is this: Lawful disclosure of the requested information is, it can be said with certainty, going to cause OMBC considerable organisational discomfort and it is expected, given their wider conduct when such matters are in issue, that there will be prevarication, obfuscation, delay and, likely a refusal on spurious grounds. In those circumstances, these early submissions take on additional significance if the matter is ultimately determined before a Tribunal.

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby
Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Mr Wilby,

We note the concerns you have raised. Your request has been passed to the appropriate officer to answer, and they have been informed of the deadline for completion in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.

In reference to point 4, you have requested the council to assist you in locating information on the Information Commissioner's website in relation to the handling for Freedom of Information Requests during the pandemic. Please find below a link to information published by the commissioner regarding its regulatory approach through the pandemic.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...

Regards

Information Management Team

Oldham Council
Level 14
Civic Centre
Oldham
OL1 1UT

[Oldham Council request email]

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Dear Information Manager,

Thank you, I'm grateful for the information provided at point 4.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Wilby

Dear Mr Wilby

Thank you for your enquiry. Please see the response to your queries below.

Many thanks

Oldham Council HR Department

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Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

This is a request for an internal review of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Common Purpose'.

The grounds for the review are:

Question A:

The Council's response to A. is an admission that it breached the Act and, on any independent view, deliberately. Please confirm if the Council has self referred this matter to the Information Commissioner's Office. The proposition that 'the response given did represent the services best efforts to provide an answer'. Complying with the law of the land not discretionary or subjective. Please also confirm if the Council wrote to Mr Hodgson on 13th August, 2021 to inform him that the response to his information request ws falsely grounded.

Question B:

Where are the records between 1989 and 2008 stored or archived. Please distinguish between paper and electronic records. On e might reasonably have expected a full response to the information request to have included this information given the inordinate time it has taken to finalise.

Question D:

Please disclose the copies of the emails referred to between the Council officer dealing with Mr Hodgson's request and Cllr (as he was then) Fielding. The reason this becomes necessary is that, when approached, Cllr Fielding said he had no recollection of such communication, either verbal or written.

More generally, please disclose the job title of the officer quality assuring the original response. One assumes that it would have been at the level of department head, at the very least. Given that Cllr Fielding featured centrally in the request and that it was, presumably, made in an attempt to undermine him, this matter would have also caught the attention of the executive management team and the Borough Solicitor.

Finally, please disclose (i) under whose executive management portfolio freedom of information requests fall. It is not immediately apparent from the Council's website (ii) the name of the Council officer who replaced Martyn Bramwell as Head of HR.

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,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Mr Wilby,

Further to you email below, your request for an internal review will be
forwarded to legal services for logging and action.

However, please note below, information not previously requested – these
questions will be logged as a new request:

1. Please confirm if the Council has self referred this matter to the
Information Commissioner's Office.
2. Please also confirm if the Council wrote to Mr Hodgson on 13th August,
2021
3. Where are the records between 1989 and 2008 stored or archived.
4. Please distinguish between paper and electronic records
5. Please disclose the copies of the emails referred to between the
Council officer dealing with Mr Hodgson's request and Cllr (as he was
then) Fielding
6. Please disclose the job title of the officer quality assuring the
original response
7. Please disclose (i) under whose executive management portfolio
freedom of information requests fall – ii) the name of the Council
officer who replaced Martyn Bramwell as Head of HR

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Level 14

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL11UL

Please note: For satellite navigation purposes the postcode is OL1 1NL

Visiting the Civic Centre by Metrolink? The nearest stop is Oldham King
Street (2 – 3 mins’ walk)

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Dear Mr Wilby

Thank you for your enquiry. Please see the response to your queries below
in red.

Many thanks

Adam Ratcliffe

Human Resources and Organisational Development

Oldham Council

#TeamOldham

Email: [1][email address]

Floor 4, Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UT

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Dear Adam Ratcliffe,

The communication you sent earlier appears to have been sent by mistake. It is a repeat of the finalisation received on 13th August, 2021.

Please also note that this request is made, and your replies are posted to, the What Do They Know website.
Any highlighting in red will not show up (neither does bold or italic type or underlining). May I, therefore, request that any emphasis you may wish to add to your posts are made by way of upper case text?

Yours sincerely,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby
Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Mr Wilby

I can see that a duplicate response to your FOI (Ref: 16219) was also issued from the Information Manager account. I am aware that your follow up queries have been allocated a new FOI reference (16301) and this will be responded to in due course.

Thank you for pointing out the formatting issues with the What Do They Know website.

Many thanks

Adam

Adam Ratcliffe
Human Resources and Organisational Development
Oldham Council
#TeamOldham
Email: [email address]
Floor 4, Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1UT

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Thank you for the clarification, Adam.

What Do They Know is an awesome facility, but it is easy to forget that its parent body is a charity and has to be run, accordingly, on tight budgets. Minus rich text bells and whistles many of us might otherwise long for!

I will await the finalisation of the new FOI request and, separately, the internal review request.

For the moment, you may note that I do not agree with the distillation of almost all of the IRR into a new information request. But, taken in the round it is, very largely, a moot point and would be disproportionate to engage either of us in fine points of argument over it.

Have a good weekend,

Neil Wilby

Dear Mr Wilby,

Further to you email below, your request for an internal review will be
forwarded to legal services for logging and action.

However, please note below, information not previously requested – these
questions will be logged as a new request:

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Level 14

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL11UL

Please note: For satellite navigation purposes the postcode is OL1 1NL

Visiting the Civic Centre by Metrolink? The nearest stop is Oldham King
Street (2 – 3 mins’ walk)

show quoted sections

Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council,

There appears to be a malfunction in your systems: The communication received on 20th August from Vicky Davies being a repeat of those sent previously from (i) the generic OMBC Info Rights email address and (ii) Adam Radcliffe.

The independent minded What Do They Know reader, or fellow user, might wryly, and justifiably, observe that, whilst all this was going on, it would have been quicker and easier for one of you to sit down and deal with the internal review request and finalise the 'new' information request.

Would you agree?

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I acknowledge with thanks your request for information; this request has
been considered as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

As such, your request may take up to 20 working days to be processed and
has been passed on to an appropriate officer.

Please be aware that your response may not be complete in whole or in
part. This is due to government wide measures to prevent the spread of
COVID-19. Oldham Council is currently handling a large volume of
business-critical work aimed towards the protection and safeguarding of
residents during the COVID-19 outbreak, and as such the business area may
not be able to respond to your request within the expected timeframe or
provide full information for the completion of your request. If you have
any comments or questions in the meantime, please direct them to
[1][email address]

Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information that you
have requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with
the provisions of that Act.

Should you have any queries, please contact:
[2][Oldham Council request email]

Yours faithfully,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Level 14

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL1 1UL

[3][email address]

From: Information Manager
Sent: 16 August 2021 15:46
To: Neil Wilby <[4][FOI #775090 email]>
Subject: RE: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Common
Purpose

Dear Mr Wilby,

Further to you email below, your request for an internal review will be
forwarded to legal services for logging and action.

However, please note below, information not previously requested – these
questions will be logged as a new request:

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Level 14

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL11UL

Please note: For satellite navigation purposes the postcode is OL1 1NL

Visiting the Civic Centre by Metrolink? The nearest stop is Oldham King
Street (2 – 3 mins’ walk)

show quoted sections

Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council,

I can scarcely believe the response to my communication earlier today.

Is it the case that the Council is deliberately setting out to vex, harass and annoy an accredited journalist?

As the progress of this request is now being watched by thousands, both on the WhatDoTheyKnow website and on social media, it is not a good lock for Oldham as a town.

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wilby

Dear Mr Wilby,

Please accept our apologies for any confusion caused as a result of a duplicate emails being sent to yourself and the acknowledgment email for your new request appearing to be in response to your previous message.

I would like to provide some clarity on the steps being taken to address your concerns and provide a response to your request for information.

In relation to your original request titled 'Common Purpose' and submitted on 19 July 2021 (Oldham Council reference: 16219), a response to this was issued on 13 August 2021. Following on from this you requested an internal review on 15 August 2021, where you also raised some additional questions.

Your request for an internal review has been passed to our Legal Services who will acknowledge and issue a response directly. The additional questions asked have been logged as a new request (Oldham Council Reference: 16301) and an acknowledgment issued on 20 August 2021.

Sincerely,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council
Level 14
Civic Centre
Oldham
OL1 1UT

[Oldham Council request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Information Manager,

For the avoidance of doubt, there is no confusion whatsoever on my part.

I do, however, remain of the view, expressed previously, that the time spent by Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council officers, tripping over each other’s toes, could, in my respectful submission, have been more usefully spent on actually finalising the ‘new request’. That observation appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

A further point is made, again with all due respect, that, based on past experience, the Borough Solicitor’s desk is not a good place for any request for action to reside. Especially, when it involves ‘marking his own homework’, as it were.

We will see how that plays out.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

RE FOI 14523 Allocation.html

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Dear Mr Wilby,

Thank you for your recent enquiry, please see the response to your queries
below in red.

1. Please confirm if the Council has self referred this matter to the
Information Commissioner's Office.

The Council has not referred this matter to the Information Commissioner’s
Office

2. Please also confirm if the Council wrote to Mr Hodgson on 13th August,
2021

The Council has not yet write to Mr Hodgson but will be doing so in due
course

3. Where are the records between 1989 and 2008 stored or archived.

Financial records prior to 2008 have been destroyed in line with councils
retention schedules

Training records prior to 2016 have been destroyed in line with council
retention schedules

4. Please distinguish between paper and electronic records

N/A – Please see above

5. Please disclose the copies of the emails referred to between the
Council officer dealing with Mr Hodgson's request and Cllr (as he was
then) Fielding

Please see attached

6. Please disclose the job title of the officer quality assuring the
original response

HR Contract and Compliance Manager

7. Please disclose

(i) under whose executive management portfolio freedom of information
requests fall –

Commissioning

ii) the name of the Council officer who replaced Martyn Bramwell as Head
of HR

The role of Head of HR was disestablished after the named officer left in
June 2020

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Level 14

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL11UL

Please note: For satellite navigation purposes the postcode is OL1 1NL

Visiting the Civic Centre by Metrolink? The nearest stop is Oldham King
Street (2 – 3 mins’ walk)

[1][IMG]

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Confidentiality: This email and its contents and any attachments are
intended only for the above named. As the email may contain confidential
or legally privileged information, if you are not, or suspect that you are
not, the above named or the person responsible for delivery of the message
to the above named, please delete or destroy the email and any attachments
immediately.

Security and Viruses: This note confirms that this email message has been
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keeping with good management practice, the recipient should ensure that
the email together with any attachments are virus free by running a virus
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Monitoring: The Council undertakes monitoring of both incoming and
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to a person within the Council it may be subject to any monitoring deemed
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Access as a public body: The Council may be required to disclose this
email (or any response to it) under the Freedom of Information Act, 2000,
unless the information in it is covered by one of the exemptions in the
Act.

Data Protection: The council is committed to ensuring that we are
transparent about the ways in which we use personal information and that
we have the right controls in place to ensure it is used responsibly and
is kept safe from inappropriate access, theft or misuse. Further
information on how we use personal information and individual's privacy
rights can be found at [2]www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
2. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Dear Information Manager,

Thank you for the very prompt and most helpful response to the 'new request'.

Despite some issues along the way, I'm grateful for your assistance in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil _Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council,

I am writing to request a second internal review of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Common Purpose' and, specifically the response so helpfully provided on 27th August, 2021.

So that fellow users and readers on the What Do They Know website, and those following the progress of this request on social media, can make sense of this internal review request, I have set out the original question, OMBC's response and the internal review request (IRR) question beneath.

1. Please confirm if the Council has self referred this matter to the
Information Commissioner's Office.

OMBC: The Council has not referred this matter to the Information Commissioner’s
Office

IRR: Please disclose the job titles of those involved in that decision and whether legal advice was sought and, if so, from whom?

2. Please also confirm if the Council wrote to Mr Hodgson on 13th August,
2021

OMBC: The Council has not yet write to Mr Hodgson but will be doing so in due
course

IRR: Please disclose the job titles of those involved in the decision (i) not to immediately inform Mr Hodgson when it became clear to OMBC that their response to his request under the Freedom of Information Act was unlawful (ii) to write to Mr Hodgson 'in due course' and (iii) whether legal advice was sought in either case and, if so, from whom?

3. Where are the records between 1989 and 2008 stored or archived.

OMBC: Financial records prior to 2008 have been destroyed in line with councils
retention schedules

IRR (A): Please (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for accounting records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or archive, of any accounting records of OMBC prior to 2008.

Training records prior to 2016 have been destroyed in line with council
retention schedules

IRR (B): (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for training records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or archive, of any training records of OMBC prior to 2016 (iii) the date upon which the last training record destruction took place.

4. Please distinguish between paper and electronic records

OMBC: N/A – Please see above

IRR: 'N/A' is not a recognised response under FOIA or Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Guidance. The correct term is 'information not held'. If that were to be the OMBC response then it is challenged as unviable. Destruction records will show whether the process involved paper or electronic records.

5. Please disclose the copies of the emails referred to between the
Council officer dealing with Mr Hodgson's request and Cllr (as he was
then) Fielding

OMBC: Please see attached

IRR: (i) The emails disclosed, in their present form, very arguably breach DPA and GDPR. OMBC is invited to review them all in that light, redact accordingly and disclose in a compliant form (ii) please confirm if Mr Hodgson's request was referred to an Executive Management Team member (or members) for sign off and, if so, by whom?

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

It is readily accepted that the Council may distil parts of this IRR into a further 'new request' - and I have no issue at all with that.

Thank you,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil _Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

Dear Mr Wilby,

Further to you email below, your request for a second internal review will
be forwarded to legal services for logging and action.

However, please note below, information not previously requested – these
questions will be logged as a new request:

• Please disclose the job titles of those involved in that decision and
whether legal advice was sought and, if so, from whom?
• Please disclose the job titles of those involved in the decision (i)
not to immediately inform Mr Hodgson when it became clear to OMBC that
their response to his request under the Freedom of Information Act was
unlawful (ii) to write to Mr Hodgson 'in due course' and (iii) whether
legal advice was sought in either case and, if so, from whom?
• Please (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for
accounting records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or
archive, of any accounting records of OMBC prior to 2008.
• Please (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for
training records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or
archive, of any training records of OMBC prior to 2016 (iii) the date
upon which the last training record destruction took place.
• (ii) please confirm if Mr Hodgson's request was referred to an
Executive Management Team member (or members) for sign off and, if so,
by whom?

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL1 1UL

[1][email address]

[2][IMG]

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
3. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Good Afternoon,

I acknowledge with thanks your application for information, which has been
considered as a request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000/Enviornmental Information Regulations 2004.

As such, this may take up to 20 working days to be processed and has been
passed on to an appropriate officer.

Please note as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oldham Council is still
currently handling a large volume of business-critical work, aimed towards
the continued protection and safeguarding of its residents.

As such you may experience a delayed response from the business area
handling your request to which we apologise in advance.

Also please be aware that in certain circumstances an exemption may apply
to the information that you have requested. This also includes the
possible requirement of the statutory period to supply a response, being
extended in accordance with the Act.

Should you have any queries, please contact:
[1][Oldham Council request email]

Kind regards

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham

OL1 1UL

From: Vicky Davies
Sent: 10 September 2021 11:57
To: 'Neil Wilby' <[FOI #775090 email]>
Subject: FOI 16301 - Internal review request / additional questions

Dear Mr Wilby,

Further to you email below, your request for a second internal review will
be forwarded to legal services for logging and action.

However, please note below, information not previously requested – these
questions will be logged as a new request:

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL1 1UL

[2][email address]

[3][IMG]

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Oldham Council request email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
4. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Dear Information Manager,

Thank you for your communication of even date.

I am grateful for the distillation of the points made in the internal review request into what will be a further 'new request' - and content with the separation, as it stands.

Yours sincerely

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

FOI 16301 Internal Review Response 20 9 21.docx

165K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Wilby,

Please find attached a response to your request for an internal review of
this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Legal Services

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street Oldham

OL1 1UL

[email address]

[1][IMG]

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
2. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Dear Mr Wilby,

Please see below response to your Freedom of Information request

• Please disclose the (i) job titles of those involved in that decision
and (ii) whether legal advice was sought and, if so, from whom?

i. Withheld

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Oldham Council has a duty to
supply any information on request, unless there is an exemption. It is the
Council's policy only to apply the exemptions where there is a genuine
risk of harm or prejudice. In such cases, we will still provide
information if it is in the public interest to do so. The requested
information is exempt under Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act,
exempt from the duty to disclose information where it constitutes personal
data, as defined in the Data Protection Act.

Section 40(2) of the Act provides an exemption when the requester is
asking for third party personal data – in this case personal data relating
to the public authority’s employees; the names of Council staff below
Senior Civil Service grade or their roles are not subject to public
scrutiny.

ii. No legal advice was sought.

• Please disclose the job titles of those involved in the decision (i)
not to immediately inform Mr Hodgson when it became clear to OMBC that
their response to his request under the Freedom of Information Act was
unlawful (ii) to write to Mr Hodgson 'in due course' and (iii) whether
legal advice was sought in either case and, if so, from whom?

i. Withheld
ii. Withheld

iii. No legal advice was sought.

• Please (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for
accounting records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or
archive, of any accounting records of OMBC prior to 2008.

i. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Oldham Council has a duty to
supply any information on request, unless there is an exemption. It is
the Council's policy only to apply the exemptions where there is a
genuine risk of harm or prejudice. In such cases, we will still provide
information if it is in the public interest to do so.

We believe that it is not in the public interest to disclose the
information to you under Section 43 Commercial Interests as we believe it
would unfairly prejudice the commercial interests of the suppliers of
services to the Council. The public interest in disclosure is not
proportionate to the damage that would be caused by prejudicing suppliers
ability to be competitive in the market place, which in turn could affect
the Council’s ability to provide the best services at the best value.

Additionally, the provider of the councils retention of schedule has
specifically stated that publishing the information in the public domain
via a website or other means (FOI) is not allowed under the terms of the
licence of use.

ii. There are no accounting records held prior to 2008.

• Please (i) disclose a copy of the Council's retention schedule for
training records (ii) confirm that there is no record, or trace, or
archive, of any training records of OMBC prior to 2016 (iii) the date
upon which the last training record destruction took place.

i. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Oldham
Council has a duty to supply any information on request, unless there is
an exemption. It is the Council's policy only to apply the exemptions
where there is a genuine risk of harm or prejudice. In such cases, we will
still provide information if it is in the public interest to do so. The
requested information is exempt under Section 43 of the Freedom of
Information Act – commercial interests.

In this instance the provider of the councils retention of schedule has
specifically stated that publishing the information in the public domain
via a website or other means is not allowed under the terms of the licence
of use.

ii. There are no training records held prior to 2016.

iii. The last training record destruction took place
18th Jan 2016.

• Please confirm if Mr Hodgson's request was referred to an Executive
Management Team member (or members) for sign off and, if so, by whom?

Mr Hodgson’s request was not referred to an Executive Management Team
member.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be
submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your
original letter and should be addressed to:

Legal & Democratic Services

Oldham Council

Civic Centre, West St, Oldham OL1 1UG

E-mail: [1][email address]

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Office of the Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

[2]https://ico.org.uk

Regards,

Information Management Team

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street

Oldham OL1 1UL

[3][email address]

[4][IMG]

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://ico.org.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
5. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Dear Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (OMBC),

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

I am writing to request a third internal review of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Common Purpose'. The proportionality of proceeding further with what is already a protracted request has been weighed in the scales along with the burden this may present Council departments that may already be at full stretch. But the balance falls heavily in favour of the public interest in the matters raised in this latest complaint.

The grounds of complaint are set out below:

1. The access request specifically focused on job titles, not names of officers. The response provided by OMBC is framed as though names had been requested. Further, and in any event, it is generally held that officers in public authorities at Civil Service Grade 12 and above have limited expectation of privacy under FOIA (similarly police officers at superintending rank and above).

2. It would seem to this journalist, at least, quite extraordinary that in a matter as serious as the subject of this request that the matter was not referred for legal advice.

3. The matter of your response to the retention records disclosure is a puzzle and requires a much more detailed response from OMBC. It is difficult, even for an experienced journalist, to comprehend how the publication of a retention schedule could prejudice any interests, commercial or otherwise.

4. A term within a contract between a public authority and a supplier cannot over-ride a statutory instrument and this should have been pointed out to OMBC's supplier at the time of signing the contact. In the interests of openness and transparency, the internal reviewer may consider it appropriate to disclose the name of that supplier. There is now a significant public interest in so doing.

5. The same comments apply, in principle, to the training records and the relevant supplier.

6. The reviewer is further invited to consider further what, taken at its face, was a decision taken in January, 2016 to destroy all training records up to and including that date. Mostly, the rationale behind what can only be described a decision that appears to be beyond bizarre.

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,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journal

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby

Web: neilwilby.com

Good Morning,

Thank you for your email dated 4 October regarding Freedom of Information
request - Common Purpose

Under the Freedom of Information Act, Section 45 code of practice states
that any correspondence in which the requester has expressed
dissatisfaction over the content or handling of their request should be
addressed through the internal review procedure.

Consequently, the Council has logged an internal review of your request
and will respond in due course.

Many thanks

Legal Services

Oldham MBC

Civic Centre, West St, Oldham OL1 1UG

E-mail: [email address]

show quoted sections

FOI Appeal response 16484 1 11 21.docx

171K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Wilby,

Please find attached a letter of response to your request for an internal
Appeal re FOI 16484.

Regards,

Legal Services

Oldham Council

Civic Centre

West Street Oldham

OL1 1UL

[email address]

[1][IMG]

Legal documents: The Council does not accept service of legal documents by
email.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/e-mail_strap_line
2. http://www.oldham.gov.uk/dataprotection

Dear Legal Services,

Thank you for the response to the internal review request dated 4th October, 2021.

It is, sub-optimal and/or defective in a number of areas. Accordingly, a section 50 complaint will be made to the Information Commissioner's Office during the course of this week.

In the meantime, may I respectfully submit that the Director of Legal Services (and the Interim Chief Executive) may wish to reflect on whether an overly risk averse approach to disclosure - against all the guiding principles of the Freedom of Information Act - is a useful consumption of precious human and financial resource within Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council.

A remark that also applies to making decisions without adequate, or any, reasoning being provided to an access request applicant. Particularly, one who is an experienced practitioner.

The ICO will, no doubt, be in touch with the Council in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Wilby
Investigative journalist

Twitter: @Neil_Wilby
Web: neilwilby.com

3 followers

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