FOI's

Dear Ms Holloway

Request for Information RFI-6582-23 Re: FOI's

Thank you for your request for information relating to FOI's which was
received on 24 May 2023.

In accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
the council will respond to your request within 20 working days, saying
whether we have the information that you want, and if there will be any
charges. 

If, for any reason, we cannot provide you with the information, we will
tell you why.

If we need to clarify your request, we will contact you again.

In the meantime, if you need to contact me about your request, please do
so quoting the above reference number.

Yours sincerely,

Fakhara Qanwal

Assistant Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[1]www.walsall.gov.uk 

[2]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

References

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

Dear Barbara Holloway,

Freedom of Information Request RFI-6582-23 Re: FOI's

Further to your request for information about FOI's, I can tell you the
following:

1 Could you please provide the number of FOI's your Council has received
so far in 2023?

Walsall Council has received 397 FOI requests (this including those
subsequently withdrawn or closed as not valid)

2 For comparison, can you please provide the same for 2021 and 2022 in
whatever format this is recorded (calendar or financial year).

2021 (Calendar year) Walsall Council received 593 FOI requests (this
including those subsequently withdrawn or closed as not valid)

2022 (calendar year) Walsall Council received 696 FOI requests (this
including those subsequently withdrawn or closed as not valid)

3 Please provide the number of staff you currently have engaged in dealing
with and processing FOI Requests?

The Councils Assurance Service is a multi-disciplinary service that is
responsible for the processing of FOI requests (along with other
information requests and social care complaints). This team currently
consists of 10.5 Full Time Employees.

However, services around the council are also involved in the FOI process
by way of providing information in response to specific requests.

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In
most cases the copyright will be owned by Walsall Council. The copyright
in respect of other information may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated.

You are free to use any information supplied to you in response to this
request for your own non-commercial research or private study purposes.
The information may also be used for any other purpose allowed by a
limitation or exception in copyright law, such as news reporting.
 However, any other type of re-use, for example by publishing the
information in analogue or digital form, including on the internet, will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

I hope that the information provided is useful to you. However, if you are
dissatisfied, you should set out in writing your grounds for complaint and
send to: Corporate Assurance Manager, Resources & Transformation, Civic
Centre, Darwall Street, Walsall, WS1 1TP.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision.
Please remember that, generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have first exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the council. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF. [1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

Yours sincerely,

Denise Gold

Assurance Officer

Walsall Council 

0800 0856018

[2]www.walsall.gov.uk 

[3]Walsall Council, Proud of our past, our present and for our future 

Disclaimer: The information in this message should be regarded as
confidential and is intended for the addressee only unless explicitly
stated. If you have received this message in error it must be deleted and
the sender notified. The views expressed in this message are personal and
not necessarily those of Walsall Council unless explicitly stated. Emails
sent or received from Walsall Council may the subject of a request under
data protection, freedom of information or environmental information
legislation and therefore could be disclosed to third parties. We strongly
advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated
third parties would be likely to cause harm or distress. If you have an
enquiry related to your confidentiality or data protection, please visit
the council data protection pages on our website

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
2. http://www.walsall.gov.uk/