Dear Education Funding Agency,

I am told that Wirral Council (the local education authority where I live) have made an application to yourselves for an exemption from the minimum funding guarantee for their schools budget for 2014-15.

Please could you provide:

a) Wirral Council's application for an exemption from the minimum funding guarantee and

b) any communications between the EFA and Wirral Council after the application was made about the EFA's decision on their application for an exemption.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

John Brace

Dear Education Funding Agency,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Education Funding Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Minimum Funding Guarantee communications with Wirral Council'.

Thank you for responding to my FOI request about Wirral Council's request for an exemption from the minimum funding guarantee.

Part (b) of my request "b) any communications between the EFA and Wirral Council after the application was made about the EFA's decision on their application for an exemption" would include a communication from Wirral Council withdrawing their request for an exemption from the minimum funding guarantee. This was not included in the response to the initial request.

The email address of Andrew Roberts (Senior Manager - School Funding & Resources) was redacted from the file you sent called 237 Wirral 344 Special Schools exemption request.html . His email address is however in the public domain and is published on Wirral Council's website as you can read for yourself on page eight of this report to Wirral Council's Cabinet about an issue related to the request for an exemption to the minimum funding guarantee http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/documents... .

There were also other matters redacted from his email to yourselves such as the subject line, date and time it was sent, who it was sent to (and their email address) which I consider to information that falls within the original FOI request.

A file you sent "FOI 2014 0017671.pdf" states "The local authority subsequently withdrew this application before any decision was taken" yet the communication from the local authority stating this is not included in your response to the request.

It is possible the request to withdraw the application was made by telephone and therefore you have no record of it to send, if so could you state this please?

As requested in the letter referred to I am sending a copy of this internal review request to Gavin Monument (School Funding Policy Adviser, Maintained Schools Division) via email.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Yours faithfully,

John Brace