Library statistics 2021
Dear Brighton and Hove City 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
Thank you for your email.
This is an automated email receipt acknowledgement from the Freedom of
Information mailbox ([1][email address]). This
mailbox is managed by the Information Governance Team at Brighton & Hove
City Council.
Should your email be in relation to a new Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOI) or a new Environmental Information Regulation 2004 (EIR) request,
we will aim to formally acknowledge this within five working days.
For all non-request related queries, we will aim to respond to you within
10 working days.
How we process new FOI and EIR requests
When you submit a new FOI or EIR request, we will do the following:
o We will log your request and send an acknowledgement email to you
stating the request reference number. This number is specific to your
request, please include it in all future correspondence. We aim to do
this within five working days of receiving your request. We may also
contact you to clarify or provide additional information to assist us
in processing your request.
o Please note that future email correspondence regarding your request
will then be sent to you from [2][email address]
o We will allocate your request to the appropriate Council team(s) for
them to collate the information you have requested, should it be held
by us.
o Once we have received an approved response back from the relevant
Council team(s), we will send this to you.
o Please note that your response will be sent to you in letter
form, as an email attachment.
o An anonymized version of the your response may be published on
the Council’s [3]Disclosure Log.
When you can expect to receive a response to your FOI request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004, the Council has a legal obligation to
respond to a valid request no later than 20 working days following the
date of receipt. In certain circumstances, this 20 working day limit can
be extended.
Further Information
You can find more information about the FOI process and how to make a
request on the Council website through the link below:
[4]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council
Thank you
Information Governance Team
[5]Brighton & Hove City Council
Please note that we are currently unable to respond to or receive
telephone calls or hard copy correspondence. Please contact us via email
where possible.
Please also be aware that our response times may be delayed as due to the
current Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic, staff working at the Council may
become absent or deployed to other areas of work at short notice.
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Dear Brighton and Hove City Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Brighton and Hove City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Library statistics 2021' (9264345).
You have first refused on the basis that:
"Under section 21 (1) (Information accessible to the applicant by other means) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible by other means and even if there is a charge or fee to obtain this information.
The information you have requested is publicly available via Public Library Statistics 2020/21 Estimates and 2019/20 Actuals Excel | CIPFA."
The data you have linked to is actually information for the previous year. I am requesting your actual data for 2020/2021.
Regardless of that, I think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what is being requested. The commercially available information is CIPFAs "added value data analysis" of a set of UK library services. I am not requesting that. From you I am directly requesting the underlying data that is submitted to CIPFA by your library service only. There is no market value equivalent unless you yourselves have examples of how much you sell that data for. I am requesting something clearly different to the commercial product available from CIPFA. The CIPFA commercial product is clearly something for a restricted audience as it is added value and expensive data services that they provide on top of the underlying public library data.
You raise another exemption, s.43 (Commercial interests), and go on to explain:
"Disclosure would, or would be likely to, undermine a third party’s ability to obtain their income as paid for information would be being disclosed for free under FOI therefore harming their commercial interests and business model."
Again, this is misunderstanding what I am requesting. CIPFA offer more than the underlying data that you provide to them, and which I am requesting from you. They add value to that data, including benchmarking, stats relevant to population, and Britain wide aggregation. This is the basis of them making an income as paid for information, and not one that I am challenging with my request.
I also believe you are incorrectly interpreting the spirit of the commercial prejudice exemption. The data requested is core library data, collected by the library service. This includes public information such as the number of loans, the number of borrowers, etc. CIPFA use this data for their commercial activities, but the raw data remains fundamental to public libraries. What you are arguing for is for CIPFA to have exclusive access to public library data for their commercial activities. That is unreasonable.
If you look at briefing notes for the exemption, you will find examples that illustrate situations where organisations could have their commercial activities prejudiced. For example, the exemption could apply if I were requesting information about CIPFAs performance in a contract. Or if they were subject to a competitive tendering process and I requested their particular rates, in order to undercut them.
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
Thank you for your email.
This is an automated email receipt acknowledgement from the Freedom of
Information mailbox ([1][email address]). This
mailbox is managed by the Information Governance Team at Brighton & Hove
City Council.
Should your email be in relation to a new Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOI) or a new Environmental Information Regulation 2004 (EIR) request,
we will aim to formally acknowledge this within five working days.
For all non-request related queries, we will aim to respond to you within
10 working days.
How we process new FOI and EIR requests
When you submit a new FOI or EIR request, we will do the following:
o We will log your request and send an acknowledgement email to you
stating the request reference number. This number is specific to your
request, please include it in all future correspondence. We aim to do
this within five working days of receiving your request. We may also
contact you to clarify or provide additional information to assist us
in processing your request.
o Please note that future email correspondence regarding your request
will then be sent to you from [2][email address]
o We will allocate your request to the appropriate Council team(s) for
them to collate the information you have requested, should it be held
by us.
o Once we have received an approved response back from the relevant
Council team(s), we will send this to you.
o Please note that your response will be sent to you in letter
form, as an email attachment.
o An anonymized version of the your response may be published on
the Council’s [3]Disclosure Log.
When you can expect to receive a response to your FOI request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004, the Council has a legal obligation to
respond to a valid request no later than 20 working days following the
date of receipt. In certain circumstances, this 20 working day limit can
be extended.
Further Information
You can find more information about the FOI process and how to make a
request on the Council website through the link below:
[4]Freedom of Information – Brighton & Hove City Council
Thank you
Information Governance Team
[5]Brighton & Hove City Council
Please note that we are currently unable to respond to or receive
telephone calls or hard copy correspondence. Please contact us via email
where possible.
Please also be aware that our response times may be delayed as due to the
current Coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic, staff working at the Council may
become absent or deployed to other areas of work at short notice.
Notice to recipient:
The information contained in this electronic mail message is intended only
for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed
and may contain information which is privileged and confidential, the
disclosure of which is prohibited by law.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please note
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
communication in error please notify the sender immediately.
Thank you in anticipation of your co-operation.
You can visit our website at [6]http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk
Please consider the environment, only print out this email if absolutely
necessary.
Please Note: Both incoming and outgoing Emails may be monitored and/or
recorded in line with current legislation
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/...
4. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/...
5. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/
6. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/
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