Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Last year DCLG awarded a £1.5 million Transformation and Efficiency Grant to either Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (or Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority).

Please could you provide in response to this request:

a) the original grant application from MFRS or MFRA

and

b) any terms and conditions attached to how the grant money can be spent.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

John Brace

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Communities and Local Government's handling of my FOI request 'Details of £1.5 million Transformation and Efficiency Grant awarded to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (or Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority)'.

In your initial response you stated:

"a) the original grant application from MFRS or MFRA

Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority have advised they intend to publish the requested information once they know the outcomes of public consultations on the related station merger transformation projects.  When consultations are concluded a report will be presented by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority containing all the information requested. We are therefore withholding this information since we consider that the following exemptions apply to it.

The information is exempt from disclosure under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act as there is a clear intention to publish the information at a future date and, in line with section 22(1)(c), it is considered reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date of publication.

 Information falling within this exemption must still be disclosed unless the public interest served by doing so is outweighed by that served by maintaining the exemption."

This grant was for station closures/mergers in three areas.

1) Eccleston and St Helens (this consultation ran from 3rd August 2015 to the 25th October 2015). The outcome of that consultation was reported to the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting on the 17th December 2015. See http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... and http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... . A report was not published for that meeting containing the original grant application.

2) Knowsley (the merger of Huyton and Whiston at Prescot) (this consultation ran from 6th May 2014 to the 28th July 2014). The outcome of this consultation was reported to the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting on the 2nd October 2014. See http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... and http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... . A report was not published for that meeting containing the original grant application.

3) Wirral West (the merger of Upton and West Kirby at first Greasby, then Saughall Massie) (this consultation ran first about Greasby starting on the 3rd October 2014 running for twelve weeks, the outcome of which was reported to the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting held on the 29th January 2015, see http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... and http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... . A report was not published for that meeting containing the original grant application. There was then a further consultation about Saughall Massie starting on the 2nd March 2015 for twelve weeks. The outcome of this consultation was reported to the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meeting on the 30th June 2015, see http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... and http://mfra.merseyfire.gov.uk/ieListDocu... . A report was not published for that meeting containing the original grant application.

Therefore this internal review points out that the information is not exempt from disclosure under s.22(1) because there is no clear intention to publish it at the future dates you specified in your initial response. The links above show the meetings to which the outcome of the consultations were reported and as you can see what you read those reports the original grant application was not published.

I therefore request that you supply me the information requested.

Furthermore due to the amount of public money that this grant application relates to, even if there is an intention to publish this information in the future (which the above would seem to prove there is not), the public interest in how £4,170,600 capital and £297,900 revenue is planned to be spent would weigh in favour of disclosure when the public interest test is considered.

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

Yours faithfully,

John Brace