Lesley Griffiths meeting with RWM

The request was successful.

Dear Welsh Government,

I'd like the minutes of a meeting held between the Minister for Environment, Energy, and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths and representatives of Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) on 11/03/2019.

Please include a list of all those present for the meeting and where the meeting took place, as well as a copy of any briefing notes given to the Minister or her staff by representatives of RWM.

Thanks in advance

Yours faithfully,

Mark Redfern

Welsh Government

Dear Mr Redfern

ATISN 13357

Thank you for your request which I received on 5 November. You asked for the minutes of a meeting held between the Minister for Environment, Energy, and Rural Affairs and representatives of Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) on 11/03/2019. You also asked for a list of attendees at this meeting and any briefing provided by RWM to the Minister or her officials.

You will receive a response by 5 December. If you have any queries about this request, please do not hesitate to contact me at the address below. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future correspondence.

The request you sent me contains personal information about you - for example, your name and address. The Welsh Government will be the data processor for this information and, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, it will be processed in order to fulfil our public task and meet our legal obligations under the Act to provide you with a response. We will only use this personal information to deal with your request and any matters which arise as a result of it. We will keep your personal information and all other information relating to your request for three years from the date on which your request is finally closed. Your personal information will then be disposed of securely.

Under data protection legislation, you have the right:

•to be informed of the personal data we hold about you and to access it
•require us to rectify inaccuracies in that data
•to (in certain circumstances) object to or restrict processing
•for (in certain circumstances) your data to be ‘erased’
•to (in certain circumstances) data portability
•to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection

For further information about the information which the Welsh Government holds and its use, or if you wish to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please see contact details below:

Data Protection Officer
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
CARDIFF
CF10 3NQ
Email:DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are:

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

Any information released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 will be listed in the Welsh Government’s Disclosure Log (at https://gov.wales/about/open-government/...).

Yours sincerely

James Gibbs
Environment Quality & Regulation
Welsh Government
[email address]

show quoted sections

Welsh Government

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    ATISN13357 2019 03 11 Note of Meeting between the Minister for EERA Radioactive Waste Management Ltd.docx

    19K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Redfern

 

ATISN13357

 

Thank you for your request which I received on 5 November about a meeting
between the Minister for Environment, Energy & Rural Affairs and
Radioactive Waste Management Ltd (RWM).  You requested a copy of the
minutes and asked about the location of the meeting, for a list of the
individuals who participated and also for any briefing notes provided by
RWM.

 

I have considered your request under the Environmental Information
Regulations, and a copy of the information you have requested is
enclosed.  The enclosed information includes the location of the meeting. 
RWM did not provide the Minister or her officials with any briefing notes.

 

I have decided that some of the information is exempt from disclosure
under Sections 12(3) and 13 (Personal data) of the Environmental
Information Regulations and is therefore withheld.  Names of Welsh
Government officials have been redacted.  The reasons for applying this
exemption is set out in full at Annex A to this letter.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your
request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the
date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be
addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

 

Information Rights Unit,

Welsh Government,

Cathays Park,

Cardiff,

CF10 3NQ

 

or Email: [1][Welsh Government request email]

 

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

 

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a
complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

 

 

 

James Gibbs

Environment Quality & Regulation,

Environment & Communities,

Welsh Government.

 

Annex A

 

I have decided to withhold the following information: 

 

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Information being withheld |Section number and exemption name|
|--------------------------------------+---------------------------------|
|  |  |
| | |
|The names of Welsh Government |Sections 12(3) and 13 (Personal |
|officials who participated in the |data) of the Environmental |
|meeting to which the request relates. |Information Regulations. |
| | |
|  |  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

This Annex sets out the reasons for the engagement of section(s) 12(3) and
13 of the Environmental Information Regulations and our subsequent
consideration of the Public Interest Test. 

 

The Welsh Government believes that disclosing the personal information of
Welsh Government officials at the meeting should be exempt from
disclosure. 

 

This information falls under the following exceptions provided by the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

 

Section 12(3) of the EIRs states:

 

To the extent that the information requested includes personal data of
which the applicant is not the data subject, the personal data shall not
be disclosed otherwise than in accordance with regulation 13.

Under regulation 13, personal data is exempt from release if disclosure
would breach one of the data protection principles.  We consider the
principle being most relevant in this instance as being the first.

 

The first data protection principle.

This states:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular,
shall not be processed unless -

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and (b) in the
case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in
Schedule 3 is also met.

We consider that the information highlighted falls within the description
of personal data as defined by the DPA and that its disclosure would
breach the first data protection principle. The first data protection
principle has two components:

1        Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and

2.       Personal data shall not be processed unless at least one of the
conditions in      DPA   schedule 2 is met

 

Guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) (Personal
information regulation 13) v 1.3) states (at p11):

 

o The starting point is to consider whether it would be fair to the data
subject to disclose their personal data. The key considerations in
assessing this are set out in the section on Fairness below.

 

o If disclosure would not be fair, then the information is exempt from
disclosure. This approach was endorsed by the Court of Appeal in the
case of Deborah Clark v the Information Commissioner and East
Hertfordshire District Council where it was held:

 

“The first data protection principle entails a consideration of whether it
would be fair to disclose the personal data in all the circumstances. The
Commissioner determined that it would not be fair to disclose the
requested information and thus the first data protection principle would
be breached. There was no need in the present case therefore to consider
whether any other Schedule 2 condition or conditions could be met because
even if such conditions could be established, it would still not be
possible to disclose the personal data without breaching the DPA”
(paragraph 63).

 

 

The ICO has issued guidance on whether release of names of officials would
be unfair, and thus in breach of the first principle of the DPA. The
guidance states:

 

In assessing whether employees can have a reasonable expectation that
their names will not be disclosed, key factors will include their level of
seniority and responsibility and whether they have a public facing role
where they represent the authority to the outside world.

 

Where the officials in question are not senior staff, do not have a public
facing role and where they are acting entirely in an administrative
capacity, I have concluded that they have a reasonable expectation that
their names will not be disclosed. It is my view, therefore, that
disclosure of their names would breach the first data protection
principle, and thus are exempt from release under regulation 12(3) of the
EIR’s.

 

Public Interest

 

In considering whether the public interest in favour of disclosure of this
information outweighs the public interest in withholding, I have
considered the nature of the information, the impact on those identified,
and the public interest in knowing the information.

 

Because of the above guidance that the release of the names of officials
who are in neither senior nor public facing roles would constitute unfair
processing under FOI, there should be a suitable and equally strong
countervailing public interest in release of their personal information.

 

This request itself is about meetings between the Minister and a limited
company, which is itself a matter of clear public interest. Nevertheless,
the presence of officials who were acting in administrative capacities
does not, on the face of it, appear to be a clear matter related to that
public interest. As we are releasing all information on the meeting
itself, and all records relating to those supporting officials (but
without naming the officials), we believe that the public interest in this
matter is satisfied by the information being released.

 

Thus we do not believe there is a countervailing public interest in
release of the names of officials who were acting in an administrative
capacity, and these have been redacted.

 

 

Sganiwyd y neges hon am bob feirws hysbys wrth iddi adael Llywodraeth
Cymru. Mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn cymryd o ddifrif yr angen i ddiogelu eich
data. Os cysylltwch â Llywodraeth Cymru, mae ein [2]hysbysiad preifatrwydd
yn esbonio sut rydym yn defnyddio eich gwybodaeth a sut rydym yn diogelu
eich preifatrwydd. Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn
anfon ateb yn Gymraeg i ohebiaeth a dderbynnir yn Gymraeg ac ni fydd
gohebu yn Gymraeg yn arwain at oedi. On leaving the Welsh Government this
email was scanned for all known viruses. The Welsh Government takes the
protection of your data seriously. If you contact the Welsh Government
then our [3]Privacy Notice explains how we use your information and the
ways in which we protect your privacy. We welcome receiving correspondence
in Welsh. Any correspondence received in Welsh will be answered in Welsh
and corresponding in Welsh will not lead to a delay in responding.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Welsh Government request email]
2. file:///tmp/”https:/gov.wales/about/welsh-government-privacy-notice/?lang=cy”
3. https://gov.wales/about/welsh-government...

Welsh Government

Dear Mr Redfern

 

ATISN 13356

 

Thank you for your request which I received on 5 November 2019.  You asked
for:

 

Copies of all communication between representatives of the Deryn PR firm
and the office of Minister for Environment, Energy, and Rural Affairs
Lesley Griffiths on the subject of Radioactive Waste Management Ltd (RWM)
during the period 01/09/2018 - 31/01/2019. 

 

Following a search of our paper and electronic records, no such
communications have been sent or received.

 

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your
request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the
date of this response.  Requests for an internal review should be
addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:
Information Rights Unit, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ
or Email: [1][Welsh Government request email]

 

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

 

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

 

Information Commissioner’s Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF

 

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a
complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

James Gibbs

Environment Quality & Regulation

Environment & Communities

Welsh Government.

 

 

 

James Gibbs

Polisi Ymbelydredd / Radioactivity Policy

Y Gangen Ansawdd Amgylchedd a Rheoleiddio / Environment Quality and
Regulation Branch
Yr Is-adran Amgylchedd a Chymunedau / Environment & Communities Division
Llywodraeth Cymru / Welsh Government 

Parc Cathays / Cathays Park
Caerdydd / Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
(: 03000 257726

+: [2]james.gibbs@llyw.cymru & [3]james.gibbs@gov.wales

 

 

Sganiwyd y neges hon am bob feirws hysbys wrth iddi adael Llywodraeth
Cymru. Mae Llywodraeth Cymru yn cymryd o ddifrif yr angen i ddiogelu eich
data. Os cysylltwch â Llywodraeth Cymru, mae ein [4]hysbysiad preifatrwydd
yn esbonio sut rydym yn defnyddio eich gwybodaeth a sut rydym yn diogelu
eich preifatrwydd. Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg. Byddwn yn
anfon ateb yn Gymraeg i ohebiaeth a dderbynnir yn Gymraeg ac ni fydd
gohebu yn Gymraeg yn arwain at oedi. On leaving the Welsh Government this
email was scanned for all known viruses. The Welsh Government takes the
protection of your data seriously. If you contact the Welsh Government
then our [5]Privacy Notice explains how we use your information and the
ways in which we protect your privacy. We welcome receiving correspondence
in Welsh. Any correspondence received in Welsh will be answered in Welsh
and corresponding in Welsh will not lead to a delay in responding.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Welsh Government request email]
2. mailto:james.gibbs@llyw.cymru
3. mailto:james.gibbs@gov.wales
4. file:///tmp/”https:/gov.wales/about/welsh-government-privacy-notice/?lang=cy”
5. https://gov.wales/about/welsh-government...