Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.

We will respond to you within 20 working days.

Dear Ms Hornby

Thank you for your FOI request dated 25 June. You requested:

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act,
regarding your EHE Draft Guidelines consultation. Please could you provide
answers to the following questions:

1) Please provide me with information about any business case, risk
assessment, impact assessment, financial risk assessment, or estimate of
likely cost that was undertaken before the proposed EHE Guidelines were
drafted, or during the process of drafting. I would like to see: minutes
of meetings at which the need for such planning was discussed;
correspondence relating to such planning; internal drafts and final
versions of documents that pertain to the likely impact (financial and
otherwise) of the proposed Guidelines.

2)  Please provide me with information about what legal advice the DfE
sought and received to justify the inclusion in the draft EHE guidelines
for LAs, section 7, that suspicion of educational neglect could breach the
'significant harm' threshold in the Children Act. I would like to see:
minutes of meetings at which the need for such legal advice was discussed;
correspondence relating to such legal advice; the legal advice itself.

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I can confirm that we hold information falling within the terms of your
request.  

The Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no
later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a
qualified exemption applies to the information and the public interest
test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20
working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is
reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make
all decisions within 20 working days, including cases where we need to
consider the public interest. In this case, however, we have not yet
reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.

The specific exemptions which apply in relation to your
request are section 35(1)(a) (policy formulation and development), and
section 42 (legal professional privilege) and in your case, we estimate
that it will take an additional 20 working days to take a decision on
where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let
you have a response by 20 August.  If it appears that it will take longer
than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a  complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to me quoting the reference number above.

If you are not content with the outcome your complaint or review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our
complaints/review procedure.

Stephen Bishop

Independent Education and Boarding Team

Department for Education

[1][email address]

01325 340440 (int x640440)

References

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1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Ms Hornby

Further to the email below, I am writing to inform you that it has not
been possible to carry out and conclude the public interest test in
respect of your request. As mentioned in the email where we said that if
it would take longer we would inform you, I am emailing to say that we
estimate that another 20 working days are required. We shall therefore aim
to let you have a response by 18 September. However, if it appears that it
will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you
informed.

Stephen Bishop

Independent Education and Boarding Team

Department for Education

[1][email address]

01325 340440 (int x640440)

From: CONSULTATION, HomeEducation
Sent: 23 July 2018 10:31
To: [FOI #492956 email]
Cc: CONSULTATION, HomeEducation
<[email address]>
Subject: FOI request 2018-0027329 (Hornby)

Dear Ms Hornby

Thank you for your FOI request dated 25 June. You requested:

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act,
regarding your EHE Draft Guidelines consultation. Please could you provide
answers to the following questions:

1) Please provide me with information about any business case, risk
assessment, impact assessment, financial risk assessment, or estimate of
likely cost that was undertaken before the proposed EHE Guidelines were
drafted, or during the process of drafting. I would like to see: minutes
of meetings at which the need for such planning was discussed;
correspondence relating to such planning; internal drafts and final
versions of documents that pertain to the likely impact (financial and
otherwise) of the proposed Guidelines.

2)  Please provide me with information about what legal advice the DfE
sought and received to justify the inclusion in the draft EHE guidelines
for LAs, section 7, that suspicion of educational neglect could breach the
'significant harm' threshold in the Children Act. I would like to see:
minutes of meetings at which the need for such legal advice was discussed;
correspondence relating to such legal advice; the legal advice itself.

I am dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I can confirm that we hold information falling within the terms of your
request.  

The Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no
later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a
qualified exemption applies to the information and the public interest
test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20
working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is
reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make
all decisions within 20 working days, including cases where we need to
consider the public interest. In this case, however, we have not yet
reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.

The specific exemptions which apply in relation to your
request are section 35(1)(a) (policy formulation and development), and
section 42 (legal professional privilege) and in your case, we estimate
that it will take an additional 20 working days to take a decision on
where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let
you have a response by 20 August.  If it appears that it will take longer
than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a  complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to me quoting the reference number above.

If you are not content with the outcome your complaint or review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our
complaints/review procedure.

Stephen Bishop

Independent Education and Boarding Team

Department for Education

[2][email address]

01325 340440 (int x640440)

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Ms Hornby

Further to my emails of 23 July and 20 August, the department has now
considered whether the public interest lies in disclosing or withholding
the information. 

A copy of the information which can be disclosed is enclosed. This
consists of an equalities log written for the consultation on home
education, draft versions of that log, and emails associated with the
drafting process. Although these fall within the scope of the s.35(1)(a)
exemption, the department has concluded that the public interest rests
with release of this information. Some parts of the information are also
within scope of the s.42 exemption (legal professional privilege), but the
department has concluded that the public interest also rests with release
of this information.

There are a small number of redactions in the documents for which we are
applying the exemption under section 40(2) (personal data),  Personal data
is that which relates to a living individual who can be identified from
that data, or from that data and other information which is likely to be
in, or to come into, the possession of the requestor. Disclosure of this
information would contravene a number of the data protection principles in
the General Data Protection Regulations/Data Protection Act 2018, and
would be regarded as ‘unfair’. By that, we mean the likely expectations of
the data subject that his or her information would not be disclosed to
others and the effect which disclosure would have on the data
subject. Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and is not subject to the
public interest test.

The department holds the remainder of the information you requested, but
it is being withheld because the following exemption applies to this
information:

Section 42 (legal professional privilege)

The department has carried out a public interest test in respect of the
information held which falls into scope of the second part of your
request, which consists of legal advice and correspondence related to that
request. There is also a general public interest in maintaining
confidentiality between client and lawyer as this is fundamental to the
operation of the justice system. Tribunal decisions relating to this
exemption suggest that there must be clear, compelling and specific
arguments for disclosure in order to outweigh that general public
interest; moreover, if advice is recent and is live in terms of the matter
to which it relates, that adds further weight to the base for withholding
the information. In this case the government is still continuing to
consider responses to the recent consultation and has not yet published
the guidance to which the information relates.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study
and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an
exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be
also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would
require the permission of the copyright holder.

Most documents produced by a government department or agency will be
protected by Crown Copyright. Most Crown copyright information can be
re-used under the Open Government Licence
([1]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...). For
information about the OGL and about re-using Crown Copyright information
please see The National Archives website
-[2]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
.

Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information
about obtaining permission from a third party see the Intellectual
Property Office’s website at [3]www.ipo.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this email. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

Stephen Bishop

Independent Education and Boarding Team

Department for Education

[4][email address]

01325 340440 (int x640440)

References

Visible links
1. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o... blocked::http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
2. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor... blocked::http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/infor...
3. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ blocked::http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/
4. mailto:[email address]