This is an automated response and confirmation that we have received your
email. We will aim to respond to you within the next three working days.  

Due to an unprecedented volume of Freedom of Information Requests
currently, it is likely that some requests may go beyond the 20 working
days, we are working as hard as possible to respond in a timely manner. 

Our office hours are 08.30-17.00 Monday – Thursday and 08.30-16.00 on
Friday. We are closed Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. 

Kind regards

FOI Team

This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information.
If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and
delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of
Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. [1]email disclaimer. For information about how
Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see
our [2]Privacy Notice.

References

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1. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...
2. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...

Our reference: 20692 FOI

Dear Ms Watts,

Thank you for your request received on the 20 November 2022, in which you
asked for the following information:

1. Provide minutes of meetings and all emails / communications concerning
the discussion of the "bus passes for Ukrainians" scheme.

2. Provide estimated cost of scheme and details of funding.

3. Does the Council have similar schemes for Afghan/Syrian/Somalian or
British Homeless. If not, why does the Council consider the Ukrainians a
special case?

Your request is being considered and you will receive the information
requested as soon as possible and in any event within the next 20 working
days in compliance with the Environmental Information Regulations
2004/Freedom of Information Act 2000, unless an exception applies. This
means that the council will respond to you by the end of 19 December 2022
at the latest.

If appropriate, the information requested can be made available in
alternative formats, including other languages, Braille, large print, and
audiocassette. If you require any of these formats then please let me
know.

Please contact me if you have any have further enquiries about your
request. I would be grateful if you could quote the reference number given
at the top of this email.

Kind regards,

Renata

Renata Malinowski

Freedom of Information Support Officer

Voice of the Customer Team

Customers and Organisational Development

Oxfordshire County Council

Email:  [1]jointcommissioning[Oxfordshire County Council request email]

[2]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information.
If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and
delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of
Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. [3]email disclaimer. For information about how
Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see
our [4]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:jointcommissioning[Oxfordshire County Council request email]
2. http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
3. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...
4. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...

Our reference:  20692 FOI

Dear Ms Watts,

Thank you for your request of 20 November 2022 in which you asked for
information regarding bus passes for Ukrainian’s scheme. Please find our
response to your questions below in bold:

 1. Provide minutes of meetings and all emails / communications concerning
the discussion of the "bus passes for Ukrainians" scheme.

Please find attached briefing note sent to the Finance Cell in July 2022. 
No other minutes, emails or communications were found.

 2. Provide estimated cost of scheme and details of funding.

For an initial period of three months at a maximum cost of £504,601.20,
Oxfordshire County Council is seeking to fund free bus passes for
Ukrainian’s arriving under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. This is funded
from the ring-fenced government money for the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

 3. Does the Council have similar schemes for Afghan/Syrian/Somalian or
British Homeless? If not, why does the Council consider the Ukrainians
a special case?

Similar schemes have operated for other refugee groups where specific
funding was in place, through our Voluntary and Community Sector partners.
Our local bus companies also offer discount schemes for various groups.
The Council supported arrangements for host Ukrainian guests that are in
the UK through the Homes for Ukraine scheme only. The scheme makes use of
specific ring-fenced national government funding and is not able to be
spent on any other group of residents.

Internal review

If you are dissatisfied with the service or response to your request, you
can ask for an internal review as follows:

• Contact the Freedom of Information team in Customers and
Organisational Development

[1][Oxfordshire County Council request email] 

• Write to the Freedom of Information team at the FREEPOST address:

Freedom of Information Team
Oxfordshire County Council
FREEPOST RTLL-ECKS-GLUA
Oxford OX1 1YA

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]www.ico.gov.uk

Please let me know if you have further enquiries. I would be grateful if
you could use the reference number given at the top of this email.

Yours sincerely,

Ruth Mateola

Project Manager

Strategy, Insight and Communication

Oxfordshire County Council

Email: [3][email address]

[4]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information.
If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and
delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of
Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. [5]email disclaimer. For information about how
Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see
our [6]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Oxfordshire County Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
5. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...
6. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...

Our reference: 20692 FOI IR

Dear Ms Watts,

In accordance with the council's Freedom of Information policy, I will
arrange for an internal review of your request to be undertaken.

The review will be undertaken by a manager not involved in the original
handling of your request. In line with guidance from the Information
Commissioner’s Office, we will aim to provide a full response within 20
working days beginning the day your complaint was received. This means you
will receive a response by 23 February 2023.

Kind regards,

Renata

Renata Malinowski

Freedom of Information Support Officer

Voice of the Customer Team

Customers and Organisational Development

Oxfordshire County Council

Email:  [1]jointcommissioning[Oxfordshire County Council request email]

[2]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

Save money and paper - do you really need to print this email.

This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information.
If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and
delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of
Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. [3]email disclaimer. For information about how
Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see
our [4]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:jointcommissioning[Oxfordshire County Council request email]
2. http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
3. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...
4. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...

Our reference: 20692 FOI IR

Dear Ms Watts,

Thank you for your emails dated 15 December 2022 and 28 January 2023. Regrettably your email of 15 December was missed due to a clerical error. Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to you. As you have indicated that you are not satisfied with the response made by the County Council, the issue has been referred to me to conduct an internal review.

My investigation

I have completed the internal review and have looked at the whole request afresh. I have also looked at how the original response was handled. On that latter point, I can see that we replied within the statutory timeframe.

On the 20 November 2022 you asked for the following information:

1. Provide minutes of meetings and all emails / communications concerning the discussion of the "bus passes for Ukrainians" scheme.

2. Provide estimated cost of scheme and details of funding.

3. Does the Council have similar schemes for Afghan/Syrian/Somalian or British Homeless. If not, why does the Council consider the Ukrainians a special case?

The Council responded to you on 15 December 2022 providing responses to each of your three questions. On 28 January 2023 you requested an internal review of the response to Question 1 as you considered that additional information was likely to be held by the Council.

Having reviewed the request, initial response and information held by the Council, we conducted another sweep of our records and were able to locate more information that fell within the scope of your request.

Please now find attached this further information. Please accept our apologies for not including this with our initial response. If any further information comes to light, then I will ensure that this is sent to you directly.

The Council has redacted the following information from the disclosure:

1. The mobile telephone numbers of all Council staff and
2. The names, addresses and contact details of all third parties who are not Council staff

The Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”). Section 40(2) provides that information shall not be disclosed where it constitutes the personal data of someone other than the applicant and that disclosure would satisfy one of the following three conditions:

1. That disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles or would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were disregarded,
2. That the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR (general processing: right to object to processing); or
3. That on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general processing: right of access by the data subject) for access to personal data, the information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by or under section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data Protection Act 2018, or (b)on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act (law enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the information would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that section

In this case, the relevant condition is the first condition. Specifically, the council considers that the first data protection principle would be breached; namely, that disclosure of the redacted information would not be fair for the following reasons:

1. The reasonable expectations of the data subjects and the nature of the information itself leads the Council to conclude that the data subjects could not reasonably expect that this information would be disclosed,
2. Neither this, nor similar information has been released into the public domain by the data subjects or anyone else,
3. That the principles of transparency and accountability under the FOIA do not override the data subject’ reasonable expectations that this information would not be disclosed; and
4. That the legitimate interests in the public having access to this information do not outweigh the interests in preserving the rights and freedoms of the data subjects.

In reaching this decision, the Council noted that the following consequences may occur if this information was disclosed:

1. Disclosure may lead to the data subject(s) receiving unwanted and unnecessary correspondence and
2. The data subject would not expect this information to be released.

In light of the above, the Council considers it justified to uphold this exemption by applying redactions to the disclosure.

I hope this now satisfies your request.

The Information Commissioner

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: https://ico.org.uk/

Yours sincerely

Mark Haynes
Director for Customer Experience and Cultural Services
Customers, Culture and Corporate Services
Oxfordshire County Council
E: [email address]
W: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. email disclaimer<https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...>. For information about how Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see our Privacy Notice.<https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...>

Our reference:  20692 FOI

Dear Ms Watts,

Further to your initial response regarding bus passes for Ukrainian’s
scheme in 2022 we have now found further information that enclose for you.

Please find attached 20692 Dave Harrison Emails.pdf.

The Council has redacted the following information from the disclosure:

 1. The names and contact details of Council employees whose roles are not
sufficiently senior to warrant the inclusion of this information,
 2. The mobile telephone numbers of all Council staff and
 3. The names, addresses and contact details of all third parties who are
not Council staff.

The Council considers that this information is exempt from disclosure
under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”). 
Section 40(2) provides that information shall not be disclosed where it
constitutes the personal data of someone other than the applicant and that
disclosure would satisfy one of the following three conditions:

 1. That disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles or
would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded.;
 2. That the disclosure of the information to a member of the public
otherwise than under this Act would contravene Article 21 of the GDPR
(general processing: right to object to processing); or

3.     That on a request under Article 15(1) of the GDPR (general
processing: right of access by the data subject) for access to personal
data, the information would be withheld in reliance on provision made by
or under section 15, 16 or 26 of, or Schedule 2, 3 or 4 to, the Data
Protection Act 2018, or (b)on a request under section 45(1)(b) of that Act
(law enforcement processing: right of access by the data subject), the
information would be withheld in reliance on subsection (4) of that
section

In this case, the relevant condition is the first condition. 
Specifically, the council considers that the first data protection
principle would be breached; namely, that disclosure of the redacted
information would not be fair for the following reasons:

 1. The reasonable expectations of the data subjects and the nature of the
information itself leads the Council to conclude that the data
subjects could not reasonably expect that this information would be
disclosed;
 2. Neither this, nor similar information has been released into the
public domain by the data subjects or anyone else;
 3. That the principles of transparency and accountability under the FOIA
do not override the data subject’s reasonable expectations that this
information would not be disclosed; and
 4. That the legitimate interests in the public having access to this
information do not outweigh the interests in preserving the rights and
freedoms of the data subjects.

In reaching this decision, the Council noted that the following
consequences may occur if this information was disclosed:

 1. The data subject would not expect this information to be released.

In light of the above, the Council considers it justified to uphold this
exemption by applying redactions to the disclosure.

Internal review

If you are dissatisfied with the service or response to your request, you
can ask for an internal review as follows:

• Contact the Freedom of Information team in Customers and
Organisational Development

[1][Oxfordshire County Council request email] 

• Write to the Freedom of Information team at the FREEPOST address:

Freedom of Information Team
Oxfordshire County Council
FREEPOST RTLL-ECKS-GLUA
Oxford OX1 1YA

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

The Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Website: [2]www.ico.gov.uk

Please let me know if you have further enquiries. I would be grateful if
you could use the reference number given at the top of this email.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Haynes

Director of Customer and Culture

Customer and Culture

Oxfordshire County Council

Email: [3][email address]

[4]www.oxfordshire.gov.uk

This email, including attachments, may contain confidential information.
If you have received it in error, please notify the sender by reply and
delete it immediately. Views expressed by the sender may not be those of
Oxfordshire County Council. Council emails are subject to the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. [5]email disclaimer. For information about how
Oxfordshire County Council manages your personal information please see
our [6]Privacy Notice.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Oxfordshire County Council request email]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/
5. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/emaildisc...
6. https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/council/a...