Control Room Staffing

The request was refused by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

Edward Michaels

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

Could you please advise me how many members of staff were on duty for all of the month of April for each shift in your Control Room and the length of shift
For clarity this is what I am looking for 30 days of data listed randomly that says:
Control Room Report for random day 1
days 8 hours 3 staff
eves 8 hours 3 staff
nights, 8 hours 3 staff,
Control Room Report for random day 2
days 8 hours 6 staff
eves 8 hours 4 staff,
nights 8 hours 3 staff,
but obviously with the correct information!
Please ensure you put this data into a random order so it is not possible to identify any shift pattern.
Please note this is a request for historical data so there is no risk to any staff of property
If this is claimed to take than 18 hours please complete until the limit is used up.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Michaels

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
With regard to your follow up request shown below, due to the very
nature of shift work and staff rotas, work and staffing patterns are
often repeated.

The Council is unable to disclose the information requested as we
believe it could still potentially expose properties/sites, serviced by
the Control Room to a risk of criminal activity.

The Council also has a duty of care to the people carrying out work and
delivering services on our behalf.

Your request is therefore refused, for the reasons cited above. The
Council is relying on 2 exemptions contained within The Freedom of
Information Act 2000:-
Section 31 Law Enforcement
Section 38 Health and Safety.


Both exemptions are qualified and therefore subject to the public
interest test. In determining the Public Interest test for Section 31,
the Council believes that disclosure would allow the opportunity for
illegal damage to property. Furthermore the Council believes that
disclosure could allow for the potential for shift patterns to be
identified and this could offer opportunity for vandalism or damage to
property/sites.
The decision of the Council is to refuse your request, as the factors in
maintaining the exemption outweigh the public interest in disclosure.

Section 38 is also a qualified exemption and therefore subject to the
public interest test. Disclosure of the information requested could
potentially endanger the health and safety of the people who are
delivering services on our behalf. The decision of the Council is to
refuse your request, as the factors in maintaining the exemption
outweigh the public interest in disclosure.

Please be advised that you have the right, under Section 17 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 to ask for an internal review of the
refusal to supply the information requested. Please direct any request
for an internal review to [Wirral Borough Council request email]

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any internal review you also
have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office,
details of which can be found at this
linkhttps://ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us

Kind regards,
Tracy O'Hare
Information Management
Transformation and Resources
Wirral Council

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research
you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse,
for example commercial publication, would require our specific
permission, may involve licensing and the application of a charge.

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Edward Michaels

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Control Room Staffing'.

This is the same answer to my previous request. I have removed even the slightest possibility of identifying a shift pattern you would not even find one with an enigma machine to.you could not in my original request and you cant with this one.
You currently have four different sources of workforce in your Control Room working 4 different shift patterns.Supervisors, Agency staff,Patrol Officers and Dog Fouling Officers. It would be impossible to identify any shift pattern from the requested information. Further your Community Patrol work a 14 week shift pattern. A snapshot of 30 days from this pattern does not in anyway make identifying 14 weeks possible. Further any shift pattern is for a full crew.Rostered Staffing numbers would always be affected by leave, sickness, swaps,slides,unforeseen circumstances and vacancies etc.

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,

Edward Michaels

Dave rimmer left an annotation ()

Criminals listening to their un-coded radio communications could in time determine the information that Wirral Council are saying they are witholding to protect staff and property so I would suggest that their arguement is fatally flawed due to the severe lack of security on the existing communication equipment

C D-Gill left an annotation ()

I would like to know the same answers however the argument about radio's, I suspect they have gone digital or have the mobile phones that everyone in the council seemed to be issued sometime ago yet accounted for!

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your further email below, this email constitutes Council’s
response to your request for an Internal Review.

 

As the Reviewing Officer I have taken into account:-

The information you have requested

The reliance on the exemptions issued to you in the first response

Guidance obtained from The Information Commissioner’s website.

 

Summary

Your request asked for the numbers of staff who were on duty for the
Control Room over a stated period of time and the length of the shifts.

The Council refused to disclose the information requested and cited
exemptions contained within Sections 31 and 38 of The Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  (Section 31 Law Enforcement.  Section 38 Health and
Safety)

 

The Council believed that disclosing the requested information would allow
opportunity for illegal damage to take place. (Section 31).

The Council also believed that disclosure of the information requested
could endanger the health and safety of the people who deliver services on
their behalf. (Section 38).  The public interest factors were taken into
account and detailed in the original response.

 

The Council still holds the views that were stated in the original
response and as the Reviewing Officer I agree with these views.  I also
agree with the use of the Exemptions contained within Sections 31 and 38. 

 

To assist you further, please see the guidance I have taken in to account
when reviewing your request, produced by The Information Commissioner:-

[1]http://ico.org.uk/upload/documents/libra...

 

[2]http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guid...

 

If you remain dissatisfied with this Internal Review then you do have the
right to complain to the Information Commissioner:-

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire SK9 5AF

www.ico.gov.uk   

 

Kind Regards

Jane Corrin

Information and Central Services Manager

Transformation and Resources

Wirral Council

 

 

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

From: Edward Michaels [mailto:[FOI #210440 email]]
Sent: 15 May 2014 21:43
To: InfoMgr, FinDMT
Subject: Internal Review 790424 - Edward Michaels - Control Room Staffing
(Follow up to 783115 )

 

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

 

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

 

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Control Room Staffing'.

 

This is the same answer to my previous request. I have removed even the
slightest possibility of identifying a shift pattern you would not even
find one with an enigma machine to.you could not in my original request
and you cant with this one.

You currently have four different sources of workforce in your Control
Room working 4 different shift patterns.Supervisors, Agency staff,Patrol
Officers and Dog Fouling Officers. It would be impossible to identify any
shift pattern from the requested information. Further your Community
Patrol work a 14 week shift pattern. A snapshot of 30 days from this
pattern does not in anyway make identifying 14 weeks possible. Further any
shift pattern is for a full crew.Rostered Staffing numbers would always be
affected by leave, sickness, swaps,slides,unforeseen circumstances and
vacancies etc.

 

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

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Edward Michaels

 

 

 

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