Copies of site specific health and safety risk assessments

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sheffield City Council,

Further to a meeting I had with Cllr. Bryan Lodge and Darren Butt (Amey Operations Director) on Moday 6th of February, it was confirmed that site specific risk assessments were undertaken for ALL sites prior to trees being felled as part of the Streets Ahead contract.

As such, could evidence of the site specific risk assessments undertaken at Rustlings Road, Dunkeld Road, and Chippinghouse Road be provided please. I do not consider there to be any confidential information or commercially sensitive information contained within these documents.

Yours faithfully,
Richard Davis

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Re – Freedom of Information Request – Reference – FOI / 3512
 
Dear Richard Davis,
 
Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Site
specific health and safety risk assessments for Rustlings Road, Dunkeld
Road, and Chippinghouse Road which we received on 10/02/2017.
 
This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request, and will be
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act.  The reference number for
your request can be found above.
 
The Freedom of Information Act states that we must respond to you within
20 working days, therefore, you should expect to hear a response from us
by 10/03/2017.
 
In the meantime, if you have any queries please contact us on the number
below.
 
Thank you.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Resources Business Support
Moorfoot Level 8 West Wing
Sheffield S1 4PL
Tel : 0114 20 53478
E-mail : [1][Sheffield City Council request email]
? Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
 
 
 

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FOI, Sheffield City Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Davis
 
Re: Freedom of Information Request – Reference FOI 3512
 
Thank you for your recent request for information regarding Site specific
health and safety risk assessments for Rustlings Road, Dunkeld Road, and
Chippinghouse Road which we received on 10^th February 2017.
 
Please find below, Sheffield City Council’s response to your request:
 
Further to a meeting I had with Cllr. Bryan Lodge and Darren Butt (Amey
Operations Director) on Moday 6th of February, it was confirmed that site
specific risk assessments were undertaken for ALL sites prior to trees
being felled as part of the Streets Ahead contract.
 
As such, could evidence of the site specific risk assessments undertaken
at Rustlings Road, Dunkeld Road, and Chippinghouse Road be provided
please. I do not consider there to be any confidential information or
commercially sensitive information contained within these documents.
 
In regard to your request the Council has considered the records it and
its contractor Amey hold in regard to the Health and Safety risk
assessments for Rustlings Road, Dunkeld Road and Chippinghouse Road. As
part of this review we have located and have provided copies of the
template risk assessments for works involving trees on the Highway in
Sheffield (please see attached). Paper versions of these forms are
completed on a daily basis for every single site (as per those noted in
your request). All staff will be briefed on the Health and Safety risks at
each site prior to work commencing and will print and sign their name on
the relevant risk assessment.
 
Due to the size of Amey's workforce and volume of sites they have operated
since contract commencement, the number of these paper copies would run
into tens of thousands of documents. In this case to search through the
related risk assessments held will be exhaustive as they are not all
retained in a chronological or location basis. With the volume of
paperwork and number of variables in play, we consider it would take far
in excess of 18 hours to locate the related risk assessments for these
specific sites. As a result to locate, retrieve and extract the requested
information would likely well exceed the cost limit for dealing with FOI
requests under [1]Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. For ease
of reference, the cost limit (18hours or £450) is specified in the
[2]Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 (SI 2004 No. 3244). In the same context under Regulation
12(4)(b) we consider the request reviewed under the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 would also meet the definition of manifestly
unreasonable in terms of cost to the authority in the handling of your
request.
 
I hope the information we have provided is of help to your enquiries.  If
you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact us.
 
If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request, you are entitled to have this reviewed.  You can ask for an
internal review by either writing to the above address or by emailing
[3][Sheffield City Council request email].
 
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you
can contact the Information Commissioners Office. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123
1113, or for further details see their website [4]www.ico.org.uk
 
Kind Regards,
 
Resources Business Support
Moorfoot Level 8 West Wing
Sheffield S1 4PL
Tel : 0114 20 53478
E-mail : [5][Sheffield City Council request email]
Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: Mccready Holly (CEX) On Behalf Of FOI
Sent: 15 February 2017 15:10
To: '[FOI #389123 email]'
Subject: Re – Freedom of Information Request – Reference – FOI / 3512
 
 
Re – Freedom of Information Request – Reference – FOI / 3512
 
Dear Richard Davis,
 
Thank you for your recent request for information relating to Site
specific health and safety risk assessments for Rustlings Road, Dunkeld
Road, and Chippinghouse Road which we received on 10/02/2017.
 
This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request, and will be
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act.  The reference number for
your request can be found above.
 
The Freedom of Information Act states that we must respond to you within
20 working days, therefore, you should expect to hear a response from us
by 10/03/2017.
 
In the meantime, if you have any queries please contact us on the number
below.
 
Thank you.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Resources Business Support
Moorfoot Level 8 West Wing
Sheffield S1 4PL
Tel : 0114 20 53478
E-mail : [6][Sheffield City Council request email]
? Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to
 
 
 

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Dear SCC,

Many thanks for your reply, and it is perfectly understandable and acceptable not to expect anyone to search specifically for those three sites out of all the possible paperwork. In which case, please provide me with a copy of ANY three site specific risk assessments (ie. the first ones you come across). I am sure this will take far less than the 18 hours quoted. If one is completed at every site, then in theory the first three sites you look at should all have one, shouldn't they?

Yours sincerely,
Richard Davis

Dear SCC

I have already replied to your response with a revised request, but would like to make an additional request for a copy of the document/guidance made reference to in part 2.7 of the 'Generic risk assessment for Arboriculture Sheffield Jan 2017', namely the 'Client instruction'.

Disclosure should not be too much of an issue as this document/guidance is no longer relevant due to Dr. Alan Billings (South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner) having stated that no further arrests will be made against tree campaigners.

Thank you in advance
Richard Davis

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear Mr Davis.

In regard to your request below and subsequent chaser emails please accept my apologies on behalf of the Council for the delay in response to your further queries. The Council does endeavour to provide a response to internal reviews within 20 working days, however upon occasion a review can be delayed as has occurred with this response. Unfortunately due to a number of factors we have been significantly delayed in providing responses to internal reviews.

As a result of this query I have completed a review of your request for additional information in accordance with the Council's internal review process and the handling of your initial request.

In your message of the 13th March you note that you appreciate the Council's considerations in regard the cost involved in collating all risk assessments held in regard to tree felling in Sheffield. As a result I have not reviewed the application of the Section 12 exemption in this case.

Unfortunately the Council is unable to provide records we hold in regard to your later request for "a copy of ANY three site specific risk assessments" in the manner you have noted i.e. the first ones we come across. The Council has provided a copy of the generic risk assessment template for your reference and to allow transparency in the considerations made when reviewing a site location. We are not required to self-select information in regard to an FOI request as the requestor is required to "describe the information requested" (Section 8(1)(c)). In this case you have provided the type of information required but not the specifics of which particular records you are hoping to obtain; in effect with have provided the generic information already in terms of the risk assessment documentation already provided. We hope you can appreciate that the Council do attempt to come away from the self-selection of information in regard to such broad FOI requests; as it is possible that the records selected for return may then be considered to be chosen in a manner to provide ones which are not controversial or they appear particularly bland, even if this is not the case.

As a result if there is a specific site or individual sites that you are interested in i.e. in respect to a set of recent works, we will of course consider this as a new request and provide a response to that affect.

I note your further message of the 14th March where you ask for details of the "client instruction" identified in point 2.7 of the Generic risk assessment for Arboriculture Sheffield. I am sorry but this request was missed when we received your earlier correspondence believing this was aligned to the internal review request. As a result I have asked the relevant service area to provide this information as soon as possible. Once I have received a copy/ further details of this documentation I will provide a further response.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you can contact the Information Commissioners Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, or for further details see their website www.ico.org.uk

Kind regards

Mark

Mark Knight
Information Management Officer
Information Management
Business Change & Information Solutions (BCIS)
Sheffield City Council
PO Box 1283 Sheffield S1 1UJ
www.sheffield.gov.uk

Landline: - 0114 273 5916
Mobile: - 07557 757801

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FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear Mr Davis.

I am writing further to my email of the 28th April 2017 and the outstanding element of your request. This part of your request was for a copy of the "client instruction" identified in point 2.7 of the Generic risk assessment for Arboriculture Sheffield. Following my previous email I have now been provided a response in regard to this element of your request.

The "client instruction" referred to in point 2.7 of the Risk Assessment is where Amey would notify the Authority of what is happening on site with protestors if the situation is escalating and seek guidance / instruction on how to proceed.

This is a verbal decision that is made on a phone call and is therefore not documented. As such, there is no document to provide; we do not hold a sample/ template "client instruction". I hope this contextual information assist with your enquiries.

Apologies again for the delay in response to this request.

If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your request, you are entitled to have this reviewed. You can ask for an internal review by either writing to the above address or by emailing [Sheffield City Council request email].

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you can contact the Information Commissioners Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, or for further details see their website www.ico.gov.uk.

Kind regards

Mark

Mark Knight
Information Management Officer
Information Management
Business Change & Information Solutions (BCIS)
Sheffield City Council
PO Box 1283 Sheffield S1 1UJ
www.sheffield.gov.uk

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Dear FOI,

Thank you for your response. In the absence of there being any documentation, could you please advise what options for verbal instruction were available for SCC to give to Amey.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Davis