Equality Impact Assessments

The request was partially successful.

Dear Filey Town Council,

Would you please be so good as to lodge, on my behalf, a Freedom of
Information Act 2000 request for the following information:

1) The Council's current Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) - which
will detail the purpose of the consultation and how the Council’s
Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010 will be
discharged; as you will be aware, the EIA will address any proposed
mitigation against any potential impacts considered.

2) In the event the the Council has not conducted an EIA, the
Minutes of the Meeting at which it was Resolved by Full Council to
disregard its duties under the EA, including the duty to conduct an
EIA. (This would be a very serious eventuality).

I await an acknowledgement and designated FOIA number.

Very kind regards,

Nigel Ward

Filey Town Council

Dear Mr Ward

Firstly may I apologise for not responding to you sooner due to my recent return from 2 weeks annual leave.

I acknowledge receipt of your request to Filey Town Council for information as detailed below under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I will respond to your request within the required timescale of 20 working days.

Kind regards.

Gina Robinson
Town Clerk
Filey Town Council
[Filey Town Council request email]
Tel 01723 514498

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If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete the email and all attachments immediately. This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information, if you are not the intended recipient any reliance on use disclosure, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email or attachments is strictly prohibited. It has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system. We do not accept liability for any damage you sustain as a result of a virus introduced by this email or any attachment and you are advised to use up-to-date virus checking software. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free.

This email is not intended nor should it be taken to create any legal relations, contractual or otherwise. Any views or opinions expressed within this email or attachment are solely those of the sender, and do not necessarily represent those of Filey Town Council unless otherwise specifically stated. We are not bound by or liable for any opinion, contract or offer to contract expressed in any email.

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Gina,

Thank you for your acknowledgement of my Freedom of Information request.

My name is 'Nigel'. Please address me as such in future correspondence. Thank you.

It is my information that FTC employs a Deputy Clerk.

Surely it should have been possible for the Deputy Clerk to have acknowledged my Freedom of Information request in your absence, and to have provided me with a designated FOIA number?

By the way, what is the designated number for my request?

I look forward to your response not later than 20 working-days after the date of receipt of my Freedom of Information request. Thank you.

If - as I am informed - FTC has never undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment,then there will be no justifiable reason for delaying your response.

Very kind regards,

Nigel

Filey Town Council

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Dear Nigel

Thank you for your response, my Deputy Town Clerk was extremely busy whilst I was on leave but I apologise that no acknowledgement was sent to you in my absence.

Your Freedom of Information Request Designation Number is 001/015.

I am now pleased to respond to your request as follows:

1) The Council's current Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) - which will detail the purpose of the consultation and how the Council’s Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010 will be discharged; as you will be aware, the EIA will address any proposed mitigation against any potential impacts considered.

Filey Town Council does not hold an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) and there I am unable to supply you with this information.

2) In the event the the Council has not conducted an EIA, the Minutes of the Meeting at which it was Resolved by Full Council to disregard its duties under the EA, including the duty to conduct an EIA. (This would be a very serious eventuality).

Filey Town Council does not hold this information.

I am aware of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Section 149 of the Act which does apply to parish councils. In England, the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/2260) (a copy of which is attached) came into force in September 2011, but whereas the draft regulations (the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) Regulations) had included parish councils amongst the bodies required to publish information, the actual Regulations, which are now in force do not. You will note that this does apply to County Councils and District Councils in England as stated in Schedule 1 of the document.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Kind regards.

Gina Robinson
Town Clerk
Filey Town Council
[Filey Town Council request email]
Tel 01723 514498

DISCLAIMER
If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete the email and all attachments immediately. This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information, if you are not the intended recipient any reliance on use disclosure, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email or attachments is strictly prohibited. It has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system. We do not accept liability for any damage you sustain as a result of a virus introduced by this email or any attachment and you are advised to use up-to-date virus checking software. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free.

This email is not intended nor should it be taken to create any legal relations, contractual or otherwise. Any views or opinions expressed within this email or attachment are solely those of the sender, and do not necessarily represent those of Filey Town Council unless otherwise specifically stated. We are not bound by or liable for any opinion, contract or offer to contract expressed in any email.

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Gina,

Thank you for your response.

Having considered your response in the light of a careful examination of the documentation available on the Council's web-site, I am led to the tentative conclusion that, in fact, the Council has given no consideration to any of the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 at all.

If I am mistaken in this tentative conclusion, then I am sure you will have no difficulty in pointing me to a location within your public record where the Council's deliberations on the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 are recorded. Should no record of such deliberations exist, I believe we may agree on an assertion that no consideration of the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 has been undertaken by the Council.

Clearly, this would have ramifications on the validity of the Council's acceptance of Scarborough Borough Council Portfolio-Holder Cllr Mike COCKERILL's self-contradicory apology for having uttered the "N-word" in the Council Chamber whne the Council was in session.

Very kind regards,

Nigel

Filey Town Council

Dear Nigel

Thank you for your email.

In the interest of best practice Filey Town Council will consider the adoption of an Equality and Diversity Policy once the new council has been elected following the elections on 7 May 2014.

Kind regards.

Gina Robinson
Town Clerk
Filey Town Council
[Filey Town Council request email]
Tel 01723 514498

DISCLAIMER
If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete the email and all attachments immediately. This email (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information, if you are not the intended recipient any reliance on use disclosure, dissemination, distribution or copying of this email or attachments is strictly prohibited. It has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system. We do not accept liability for any damage you sustain as a result of a virus introduced by this email or any attachment and you are advised to use up-to-date virus checking software. Email transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free.

This email is not intended nor should it be taken to create any legal relations, contractual or otherwise. Any views or opinions expressed within this email or attachment are solely those of the sender, and do not necessarily represent those of Filey Town Council unless otherwise specifically stated. We are not bound by or liable for any opinion, contract or offer to contract expressed in any email.

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