Database/s used to store Warwickshire County Council Accounts

The request was partially successful.

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

I would like to request the following details of the database/s used to store the details of Warwickshire County Council Accounts:

(1) The name and version of the database software (eg Oracle, mySQL, etc) used;

(2) The definitions of the tables in this database in terms of names, columns, datatypes and relationships;

(3) The total size of the database containing this information in terms of its memory on disk;

(4) How frequently this information is backed up and/or reloaded into the database, and how long this process takes.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Warwickshire County Council

Dear Ms Evans,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your request for information which I acknowledge was
received by the County Council on the 10 May 2010.

Your request is currently being considered. If the County Council is able
to provide you with the information you have requested, then under the
Freedom Of Information Act you are entitled to receive it within 20
working days.

For your information, the FOI Act defines a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of some or all of the information you have requested. The
County Council will assess your information request in light of the
exemptions. If exemptions do apply, then the County Council may decide
not to release all, or part, of the information you have requested. I
shall inform you if this is the case, and advise you of your rights of
appeal.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken by the County
Council as to whether to release the information to you. You will be kept
informed if this is the case.

Any information provided to you will be either in the format you have
specifically requested or by the same means in which the request was made.
However, If you require an alternative format, e.g. by e-mail, in a
different language, or in audio, large print, etc. then please let me
know.

The County Council will not charge a fee to provide you with the
information you have requested, provided the cost of dealing with your
request is less than *450. If it appears likely that your request will
cost more than *450 to deal with then I will write to you again asking if
you are willing to pay the fees incurred, and setting out clearly what
those fees will be, in accordance with the FOI Act.

If you have any queries or should you wish to make a complaint about the
manner in which your request is being dealt with then please do not
hesitate to contact me at the above address in the first instance. Any
complaints will be dealt with under the County Council's internal review
procedure.

Further information about your rights under the Freedom of Information
Act, is available from the Information Commissioner's Office (0303 123
1113) or [1]www.ico.gov.ukand on the County Council's website.

I will be in touch again shortly.

Your sincerely

Donna Curtis
FOI Officer
Resources Directorate
Warwickshire County Council
Tel: 01926 418089
Minicom: 01926 412277
E-Mail: [email address]
www.warwickshire.gov.uk

This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in
error please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or
from us, including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Warwickshire County Council

Afternoon Ms Evans,

Can I ask you to confirm what you mean by WCC Accounts, we would take that
to mean our Ledger, is that the case?

Donna Curtis
Development Support Officer
Improvement & Development Group
SRD
Resources Directorate
Warwickshire County Council
Tel: 01926 418089
Minicom: 01926 412277
E-Mail: [email address]
www.warwickshire.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

Thank you for your reply, yes I would like to know the details of the Ledger.

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Warwickshire County Council

Dear Ms Evans,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST
Your request for information has now been considered. I am able to
provide you with some of the information you have requested.

Question. 1

Flexi International on an Oracle Database

Question. 2

See below

Question. 3

The Total size of the database is 22.73GB

Question. 4

The database is backed up daily and reloaded weekly to a test environment
to check the integrity of the backup. The database backup takes 14 minutes
and first a disk to disk copy is taken. Later in the night the disk copy
is written to off-line storage and this process takes on average 57
minutes. This time can vary dependant on how busy the tape library is.
Your request for information in respect of question 2 has now been
considered and unfortunately the County Council is unable to comply with
it as after due consideration, the County Council considers that the
public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public
interest in disclosing it.

In accordance with section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
please treat this response as a Public Interest Refusal Notice.

The exemption applied is the commercial interests' exemption under section
43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This exemption applies because
information relating to the County Council's financial systems database
structure is commercially sensitive to both the County Council and to
Flexi International; the supplier of the database, and could prejudice
both parties' commercial interests if disclosed. In respect of the
County Council, if this information were to be released into the public
domain it could be used to obtain unauthorised access to the County
Council's financial systems. In respect of Flexi International, a
disclosure of this kind could prejudice its commercial interests if
information relating to the design of the database was known by its
competitors

The reasons why the public interest favours withholding the information
are that the public interest is served in ensuring that the security of
the County Council's Financial Systems are not compromised. Equally, the
County Council's suppliers must be able to compete fairly in the
marketplace as there is a public interest in ensuring that there is
competition for public sector contracts.

However, the County Council does recognise that there are argument(s) in
favour of disclosure such as greater transparency. Nevertheless, the
County Council considers that in all circumstances, on balance the public
interest favours withholding the information at this time.

You have the right to request that the County Council carry out an
internal review if you are not satisfied with the way your request was
dealt with or wish to appeal the decision. A request for an internal
review should be made in writing and addressed to me at the address above.
All requests for an internal review will be dealt with under the County
Council's internal review procedure.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review you may
appeal to the Information Commissioner's Office, at the following address:

FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Yours sincerely

Donna Curtis
FOI Officer
Resources Directorate
Warwickshire County Council
Tel: 01926 418089
Minicom: 01926 412277
E-Mail: [email address]
www.warwickshire.gov.uk

This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in
error please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or
from us, including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Warwickshire County Council's handling of my FOI request 'Database/s used to store Warwickshire County Council Accounts'.

I asked for:
"The definitions of the tables in this [The Accounting ] database in terms of names, columns, datatypes and relationships"

This was refused on the grounds of:
" 'commercial interests' exemption under section
43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000"

I would like to pointing to the ICOs guidance on applying the S.43(2) exemption.

Warwickshire County Council should have provided evidence that Flexi International consider the release of the information would be prejudicial to their commercial interests. The ICOs guidance clearly states:

" The public authority must not speculate as to whether there is any commercial detriment and the reasons why without any evidence or input from the third party."

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

As such I would like evidence that Warwickshire County Council have either:
* been in touch with Flexi International specifically with respect to this request;

or

* provide a relevant excerpt from the contract
between Warwickshire County Council and Flexi International which makes clear the information being sought would be commercially detrimental if released.

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

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

Warwickshire County Council

Dear Ms Evans

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your e-mail dated 26 May 2010 regarding the above matter. I
note that you now wish the Council to carry out an internal review in
respect of this matter.

Who undertakes the review?

The Council's internal review procedure in respect of requests for
information is a single stage review process undertaken by the Corporate
Legal Services Manager (or a member of her team as nominated by her) on
behalf of the Monitoring Officer of the Council and your request for a
review has been passed to her to deal with.

How long it takes

In most cases the internal review should take no longer than 20 working
days from the date the request for a review is received by the Council.
In this case this means you should receive a response telling you the
outcome of the review by 24 June 2010. In some circumstances the review
may take longer due to the complexity of the particular matter, however,
it should take no longer than 40 working days. We will keep you informed
if we estimate that it will take more than 20 working days to send you a
response.

Outcome of the review

If the internal review concludes that all or some of the information you
have requested should be disclosed to you, then the relevant information
will be disclosed to you as soon as is reasonably practicable and you will
be informed of how long this will take. If the conclusion of the internal
review is to uphold the original decision not to disclose some or all of
the information requested, then reasons for withholding such information
will be given.

What next?

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the internal review then you
can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office:

FOI Compliance Team (complaints)
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113

Further information about your rights under the Freedom of Information
Act, is available from the Information Commissioner's Office (0303 123
1113) or [1]www.ico.gov.uk and on the County Council's website.

I will be in touch again shortly.

Yours sincerely

Sioned Harper (Mrs)
Solicitor
Law & Governance
Customer Workforce & Governance Directorate
Shire Hall
PO Box 9
Warwick
CV34 4RR
DX 723362 Warwick 5

Lisa Evans To FOI requests at
<[FOI #34938 email]> Warwickshire County
Council
26/05/2010 12:13 <[Warwickshire County Council request email]>
cc
Subject Internal review of
Freedom of Information
request - Database/s used
to store Warwickshire
County Council Accounts

Dear Warwickshire County Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Warwickshire County
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Database/s used to store
Warwickshire County Council Accounts'.

I asked for:
"The definitions of the tables in this [The Accounting ] database
in terms of names, columns, datatypes and relationships"

This was refused on the grounds of:
" 'commercial interests' exemption under section
43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000"

I would like to pointing to the ICOs guidance on applying the
S.43(2) exemption.

Warwickshire County Council should have provided evidence that
Flexi International consider the release of the information would
be prejudicial to their commercial interests. The ICOs guidance
clearly states:

" The public authority must not speculate as to whether there is
any commercial detriment and the reasons why without any evidence
or input from the third party."

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

As such I would like evidence that Warwickshire County Council have
either:
* been in touch with Flexi International specifically with respect
to this request;

or

* provide a relevant excerpt from the contract
between Warwickshire County Council and Flexi International which
makes clear the information being sought would be commercially
detrimental if released.

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

Yours faithfully,

Lisa Evans

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/about...

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #34938 email]

If you find WhatDoTheyKnow useful as an FOI officer, please ask
your web manager to suggest us on your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

keith Kondakor left an annotation ()

I am going to look at WCC accounting ledger under the audit commission act in July under the audit commission act 1998 section 15. Please do contact me if I can help.

keith <at> wex.org.uk

Warwickshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Evans

Please see attached letter relating to the above.

Thank you.

Regards

Sian Stroud
Team Leader, Corporate & Employment

Law & Governance Division
Customers, Workforce and Governance Directorate
Warwickshire County Council

01926 41 2838
Blackberry: 07826 534649

Please note I work Mon, Tues, Weds and my job share colleague Vicky
Newbold works Weds, Thurs, Fri.

This transmission is intended for the named addressee(s) only and may
contain sensitive or protectively marked material up to RESTRICTED and
should be handled accordingly. Unless you are the named addressee (or
authorised to receive it for the addressee) you may not copy or use it, or
disclose it to anyone else. If you have received this transmission in
error please notify the sender immediately. All email traffic sent to or
from us, including without limitation all GCSX traffic, may be subject to
recording and/or monitoring in accordance with relevant legislation.