Library statistics 2021

Dear North Lanarkshire 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

Dear North Lanarkshire Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of North Lanarkshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'Library statistics 2021'.

The request was refused with the following reason:

"By way of some explanation, the data sought is specifically curated for CIPFA so they can then provide added value data analysis for subscribers. If the data sought is released into the public domain this would hamper CIPFA’s commercial activities and would also breach copyright legislation."

I believe this is 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. Or if they were subject to a competitive tendering process and I requested their particular rates, in order to undercut them.

You mention that CIPFAs commercial activity is in creating "added value data analysis", I am specifically requesting the underlying data itself before value has been added. If CIPFA's commercial interest is in adding value to that data for paying subscribers, then there is no possible prejudice to them as that is still an expertise that they can offer to library services. It could only be a valid exemption should I be asking for the analysis itself.

You also mention copyright, but this isn’t a valid reason for denying the request. If a response to a freedom of information request includes copyright material that does not breach copyright just by disclosing the information.

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