Library statistics 2021
Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,
FAO The Library Service.
Hello, I have two freedom of information (FOI) queries that should be quick. This is being sent to all UK library services so be assured you aren't being singled out! If the operating of the library service has been outsourced to a separate organisation then please fulfil this request by retrieving the response from that body.
1. Does the library service complete annual library statistics to be sent to CIPFA? And specifically, have these been completed for the financial year 2020/2021?
2. If the answer to the above is Yes, please include a copy of your 2020/2021 CIPFA library statistics return in your response. This should be sent in the same format as was sent to CIPFA (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet).
It is important that this should be an exact copy of the data sent to CIPFA. I am not requesting any data that is owned by CIPFA, such as their own aggregated reports. As the data is compiled by the library service it is public library data, and subject to Freedom of Information.
To try and cover any concerns about the second part of this request, I have answered a number of potential worries below. Please have a quick look through these before responding!
- Data Format. The data should be sent as structured data in spreadsheet format. Guidelines from the Information Commissioner's Office specify that it is reasonable to request data in a re-usable and "Machine-readable" formats. For example, if the data were exported to a PDF file then that would not be acceptable, as that is a document rather than structured data.
- FOI exemption: accessible by other means. Occasionally, requesters in the past have been told that this data could be exempt from FOI as it accessible from CIPFA when it is published. However this fails the test of being 'reasonably' accessible due to the high cost for a member of the public. This exemption would certainly be overturned on appeal.
- FOI exemption: commercial interest. Commercial interest exemptions do exist in FOI legislation but this would not apply to a single third party (e.g. CIPFA) who use public data. Their commercial interests are in the value they provide in reporting on that data.
Thank you in advance!
Yours faithfully,
Dave Rowe
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Dear Dave Rowe,
We acknowledge with thanks your request for information held by Bolton
Council received at this office on 15 September 2021.
This request will be considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and may take up to 20 working days to be processed (although we will
endeavour to provide the information as quickly as possible).
Please be advised that if an exemption applies to the information that you
have requested, the statutory period may be exceeded in accordance with
the provisions of the act.
Please retain the reference number RFI 008983 for any future enquiries
regarding this matter.
Many thanks
The Information Governance Team
1^st Floor, Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU
>>Corporate Logo<<
This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations.
This footnote also confirms that this e-mail message has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses currently known to Bolton Council.
However, the recipient is responsible for virus-checking before opening
this message and any attachment.
Unless expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect
the views of Bolton Council.
Dear Dave Rowe
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
In response to your request for information received at this office on 15
September 2021, please see the Council’s response below.
You requested
I have two freedom of information (FOI) queries that should be quick. This
is being sent to all UK library services so be assured you aren't being
singled out! If the operating of the library service has been outsourced
to a separate organisation then please fulfil this request by retrieving
the response from that body.
1. Does the library service complete annual library statistics to be sent
to CIPFA? And specifically, have these been completed for the financial
year 2020/2021?
2. If the answer to the above is Yes, please include a copy of your
2020/2021 CIPFA library statistics return in your response. This should be
sent in the same format as was sent to CIPFA (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet).
It is important that this should be an exact copy of the data sent to
CIPFA. I am not requesting any data that is owned by CIPFA, such as their
own aggregated reports. As the data is compiled by the library service it
is public library data, and subject to Freedom of Information.
Our response
1. Does the library service complete annual library statistics to be sent
to CIPFA? And specifically, have these been completed for the financial
year 2020/2021?
We have submitted the CIPFA survey for 2020/21 but were unable to provide
all of the information requested this time (in particular, the financial
data).
2. If the answer to the above is Yes, please include a copy of your
2020/2021 CIPFA library statistics return in your response. This should be
sent in the same format as was sent to CIPFA (e.g. an Excel spreadsheet).
We’ve had request previously and were told by CIPFA that we couldn’t share
the data using their format/template as this is their intellectual
property.
As per the Information Commissioners Office’s Freedom of Information Code
of Practice, should you disagree with our decision, you may appeal within
40 working days of this email to:
The Borough Solicitor, Bolton Council, Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU
Email: [email address]
Should you further disagree with the decision following the appeal you may
wish to contact the Information Commissioner:
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk
Tel: 01625 545700, Fax: 01625 524510
Should you have any queries, please contact [email address]
Yours sincerely
Information Governance Officer
Information Governance Team
www.bolton.gov.uk
>>Corporate Logo<<
This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations.
This footnote also confirms that this e-mail message has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses currently known to Bolton Council.
However, the recipient is responsible for virus-checking before opening
this message and any attachment.
Unless expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect
the views of Bolton Council.
Dear Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Library statistics 2021'.
I appreciate the response. However, you have refused the request on the basis of one reason:
"We’ve had request previously and were told by CIPFA that we couldn’t share the data using their format/template as this is their intellectual property. "
I'm sorry that you have received this advice from CIPFA, I think they've done this with quite a few library services.
I would say that in replying to a freedom of information request, it is not enough to reply with CIPFA's advice on the matter. In terms of intellectual property, there is official ICO guidance on Intellectual property rights and disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act. See:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...
You can review that for yourselves, but it contains the following:
"Much of the information held by a public authority will be protected by copyright, owned either by the Crown, Parliament, the public authority itself or a third party. It may be thought that disclosing information in which the IP right is owned by a third party would infringe copyright and that therefore copyright would prevent disclosure, however, this is not the case. Copyright does not act as a statutory bar to disclosure for the purposes of section 44 of FOIA"
If you have been misinformed by CIPFA I would suggest querying why this was the case, given that this is now going to internal review.
Please could you review this in the context of the original response. If you have any other objections I would be happy to discuss those as a review should be regarding the original request and response.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...
Yours faithfully,
Dave Rowe
This is only an automated message and confirmation that we have received
your email.
This mailbox is primarily used for Freedom of Information (FOI) and
Subject Access Requests (SAR’s) as well as other information requests.
Further information can be found at
[1]https://www.bolton.gov.uk/data-protectio...
Your email will be processed shortly.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) update
Due to the current Coronavirus outbreak you may experience delays when
making information rights requests. Please bear with us during this
period.
>>Corporate Logo<<
This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also be
legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended addressee.
If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to the sender and then
immediately, permanently delete it. Do not read, print, re-transmit, store
or act in reliance on it. This e-mail may be monitored by Bolton Council
in accordance with current regulations.
This footnote also confirms that this e-mail message has been swept for
the presence of computer viruses currently known to Bolton Council.
However, the recipient is responsible for virus-checking before opening
this message and any attachment.
Unless expressly stated to the contrary, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect
the views of Bolton Council.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.bolton.gov.uk/data-protectio...
Dear Dave Rowe,
Further to your email received at this office on 16 October 2021 , we acknowledge with thanks your request for an internal review.
The matter will be processed as an internal review and a response will be provided by the Council's Monitoring Officer outlining her decision in due course.
Kind regards
The Information Governance Team
1st Floor, Town Hall, Bolton, BL1 1RU
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