Condition Improvement Fund 2016 – 2017

The request was successful.

Dear Education and Skills Funding Agency,

I would like to request information relating to the Condition Improvement Fund 2016 – 2017. For each grant awarded I would like to request the following information
- Project reference
- LA
- URN
- School Name
- Project Name
- Phase of education
- Constituency
- Total value of grant awarded
- Whether the grant was classified as a "Condition" grant or for "Expansion"
Please provide this in 'soft copy' (Excel spreadsheet, ODS document or CSV file)

Please refer to my previous request for this information https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...
which was escalated to the Information Commissioner who issued the following decision notice:
https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

The Information Commissioner upheld your use of s.22 because you told them this information would be published “in early 2019” See paras 6 and 19.

I do not believe that this information has been published.

best wishes
James Coombs

MINISTERS, Education and Skills Funding Agency

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Thank you for contacting the Department for Education, you will usually
receive a reply within 15 working days.

You can find out how the department processes your personal information by
reading our [1]Privacy Notice.

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ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Education and Skills Funding Agency

Dear James Coombs,

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information; the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your
correspondence has been allocated reference number 2019-0039453.

 

Thank you

 

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Education and Skills Funding Agency

Dear Mr Coombs,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 7
November 2019.

You have requested:

I would like to request information relating to the Condition Improvement
Fund 2016 – 2017. For each grant awarded I would like to request the
following information

- Project reference

- LA

- URN

- School Name

- Project Name

- Phase of education

- Constituency

- Total value of grant awarded

- Whether the grant was classified as a "Condition" grant or for
"Expansion"

Please provide this in 'soft copy' (Excel spreadsheet, ODS document or CSV
file)

 

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We have noted that you have previously requested this information (FOI
2018- 0028071) which we responded to on 16^th July 2018 and which was
subsequently reviewed by the Information Commissioner’s Office on 14^th
February 2019. In our previous response to you we considered the
information we hold on the total value of grant awarded to be exempt from
release under section 22 of the Act. Section 22 provides for information
to be exempt from disclosure where the information is held by the
department with a view to its publication by the department or any other
person at some future date.

As you are aware, Section 22 of the Act is a qualified exemption, this
means a public interest test needs to be carried out; in doing so the
following factors have been fully considered. It is acknowledged that
there is a general public interest in disclosure because of the need for
there to be open and transparent government and that the sharing of
information with the public should be free and open.

The public interest in permitting the government to publish information in
a manner and at a time of its own choosing is also important. It is part
of the effective conduct of public affairs that the general publication of
information is a conveniently planned and managed activity within the
reasonable control of the public authority.

Information should not be released in parts in advance of its planned
timetable and planned publication, and there is a strong argument in
favour of allowing everyone to view this information at the same time. I
can confirm that the information you have requested will be published in
the first quarter of next year. We appreciate that this is not the answer
you will have wished to have received and that the publication has taken
longer than initially expected. We are dependent upon the recipients of
the funding to complete the work before we can produce accurate figures;
the release of incomplete, or inaccurate, figures would not be in the
public interest.  

The arguments for and against release have been considered and it is our
view that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the
maintenance of this exemption in relation to the information relating to
this request.

I can confirm that the information will be published at the link below:

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

 If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within 2 calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lateef Agboola

Business Support and Improvement Team | Capital Directorate | Operations
Group | 5^th Floor | Sanctuary Building | Great Smith Street | London |
SW1P 3BT

 

Web: [2]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [3]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [4]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
2. https://www.education.gov.uk/
3. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
4. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

Dear Education and Skills Funding Agency,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Education and Skills Funding Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Condition Improvement Fund 2016 – 2017'.

As you will be aware, I first requested this information in June 2018 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/a...

There appears to be disagreement as to exactly what is meant by the amounts of money "awarded" and we are at cross purposes regarding the exact information I have requested. My view is when a schools applies for a certain sum to carry out certain repairs and that sum is approved, the DfE have "awarded" a grant for this amount of money. Your extremely narrow interpretation is that the amount "awarded" only applies when the final amounts are known.

The Information Commissioner upheld your use of s.22 in connection with my request from June 2018, however this was
1. Based on a misunderstanding of what I actually requested, and
2. A sensible compromise at the time (14 Feb 2019) because the DfE had given the Information Commissioner assurances that the final settled amounts would be published "by early 2019".

For the avoidance of doubt, I suggest we refer to the information I have actually been seeking for 18 months now as the "agreed" amounts, although had the final "awarded" amounts been published in early 2019, as promised following the Information Commissioner's intervention, this would have been an acceptable compromise.

To argue that the "agreed" amounts are exempt under s.22 would require two conditions to be satisfied
1. That the DfE had already determined to publish this information at the time of my request. Looking at previous years' publications there is no evidence to support this.
2. That the greater public interest lies in the DfE avoiding disclosing amounts "agreed" (albeit subject to potential minor variations) to pay to schools, thus preventing the public from scrutinising funding decisions and ensuring the DfE is fulfilling its statutory duties.

I have no objections to the information being clearly marked as "provisional estimates subject to final confirmation" or any other wording the DfE sees fit to ensure there is no confusion that the information I am seeking is not incorrectly interpreted in very narrow terms as the final settled figures, but in order for you to properly consider my request it is essential that we resolve the misunderstanding about what information I have requested.

Given that my request is now effectively 18 months old, I would also appreciate anything you are able to do to expedite your response.

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

Yours faithfully,

James Coombs

MINISTERS, Education and Skills Funding Agency

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education, you will usually
receive a reply within 15 working days.

You can find out how the department processes your personal information by
reading our [1]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Education and Skills Funding Agency

Dear Mr Coombs,

 

Thank you for your request for an FOI Internal Review based on our
response reference 2019-0039453. Following your clarification, we are able
to provide a number of options which are available at this time.

 

• We are able to provide you with the information that you requested in
your clarification, would you be happy for us to do so under the
classification of a standard FOI response?

◦ Information to be provided: The approved amount applied for under
CIF 2016-17 for each successful school

 

• We could continue with the process of an Internal review, that would
take into account the additional clarification you have provided. It
is worth noting that following the Internal Review it is expected that
the result will be for us to provide you with the information as per
the first option.

 

Please would you confirm whether or not you are happy for us to proceed
with your query as per the first option and for the Internal Review to be
withdrawn?

 

We are always happy to receive follow-up requests to FOIs in cases where
we have not interpreted a question as the requester intended.  Please
accept our apologies for any confusion which may have been caused due to
our misunderstanding of your original query. We work on the basis that an
award is not fully approved until the project is completed (ie a
completion certificate issued) and as such had interpreted your request as
being these figures.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Lateef Agboola

Business Support and Improvement Team | Capital Directorate | Operations
Group | 5^th Floor | Sanctuary Building | Great Smith Street | London |
SW1P 3BT

 

 

 

Dear Lateef Agboola,

Following clarification of the misunderstanding I can confirm that I would be grateful if you provide the information requested (The approved amount applied for under CIF 2016-17 for each successful school) under the classification of a standard FOI response.

best wishes,

James Coombs

MINISTERS, Education and Skills Funding Agency

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education, you will usually
receive a reply within 15 working days.

You can find out how the department processes your personal information by
reading our [1]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Education and Skills Funding Agency

1 Attachment

Dear James Coombs,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 17
December 2019, in relation to our request for further information around
your letters ref: 2019-0041877 and 2019-0039453.

 

You requested, and provided clarification on, the following:

 

information relating to the Condition Improvement Fund 2016-2017. For each
grant awarded I would like to request the following information:

- Project reference

- LA

- URN

- School Name

- Project Name

- Phase of education

- Constituency

- Total value of grant awarded

- Whether the grant was classified as a "Condition" grant or for
"Expansion"

 

I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

In response to your request, I can confirm that the information is
attached in the form of an Excel Spreadsheet. Please note that the
information requested relating to the classification of “Condition” or
“Expansion” is contained within the project name column and this indicates
where work is for expansion.

 

I should clarify that the value of grant awarded in each case may not
represent the final sum spent on the project named.  This is because
schools and trusts may use their own money or source funds from elsewhere
towards a project.  Similarly, the scope of a project may change during
the course of its delivery and the final project cost may be lower or
higher than planned. Where the project cost is lower, we will of course
reduce the grant that is paid accordingly.   

 

We publish final funding figures once all projects in an annual round have
completed. As you are aware, we’ve most recently published funding amounts
for the 2015 to 2016 round at:

 [1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

The 2016 to 2017 round is due to be published in the next few months at
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study
and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an
exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be
also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would
require the permission of the copyright holder.

 

Most documents produced by a government department or agency will be
protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be
re-used under the Open Government Licence
([3]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For
information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information
please see The National Archives website
-[4]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.

 

Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information
about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual
Property Office’s website at [5]www.ipo.gov.uk.

 

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within 2 calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.  

Yours sincerely, 

Chloe Rowlands

Web: [6]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [7]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [8]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

References

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2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...
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http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
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http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
6. https://www.education.gov.uk/
7. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
8. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk