MK Council evidence to FA Commission

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Milton Keynes Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Milton Keynes Council,

Please could you send me the following documents under the FOI Act:

1. The witness statement provided by Norman Leslie Miles to the Arbitration Panel considering the case for Wimbledon FC to move to Milton Keynes on 21 November 2001 (referred to on page 53 of http://www.mkdsa.org.uk/2002Commissions%...)

2. The witness statement provided by Isabel Rosemary Wilson to the FA Commission considering the case for Wimbledon FC to move to Milton Keynes on 13 May 2002 (referred to on page 50 of ‪http://www.mkdsa.org.uk/2002Commissions%...)

3. Any correspondence between MK Council officials or politicians and Peter Winkelman concerning the evidence provided to the 2002 FA Commission or the 2001 Arbitration Panel.

4. Any correspondence between MK Council officials or politicians and Inter MK Limited concerning the evidence provided to the 2002 FA Commission or the 2001 Arbitration Panel.

Yours faithfully,

Brad Common

Rehm, Miranda, Milton Keynes Council

Dear Mr Common

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Your request for information has now been considered. Unfortunately, we do not hold the information. It has been suggested that you may wish to contact the Football Association for assistance.

I apologise that your request cannot be met, but if you have any further information needs in the future then please contact me.

If you have a complaint about the handling of your request then please contact me. I will arrange for an internal review which will be considered as part of Stage 2 of the Council’s complaints procedure.

You also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524510
www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely

Miranda Rehm
FOI Liaison Officer

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Dear Rehm, Miranda,

Please can I request an internal review of this decision.

It is surprising that Milton Keynes Council have deleted official correspondence from two former Leaders of MK Council that must have been approved by officials within the council as well as the senior leadership. I would have thought that this was inconsistent with your records management policy.

If you have mislaid the documents, please can I suggest that you ask the FA for a copy - as they are not a public body they are not bound by the FOI Act an they have refused a number of requests to publish all the documentation but would probably provide you with a record of evidence that MK Council themselves provided.

Thanks,
Brad

Yours sincerely,

Brad Common

Brad Common left an annotation ()

How can Milton Keynes Council claim to have checked whether or not they had this information or not when they responded to the request barely 24 hours after it was made?

Dear Rehm, Miranda,

One further concern I forgot to mention that I would like an internal review to address is that I was extremely surprised that you were able to verify within 24 hours of getting my request that you did not hold any information regarding any part of the request.

The speed of reply suggests to me that you have not adequately assured yourself that the information I am requesting is not held as there was insufficient time for you to discuss the issue with officials across MK Council or fully searched your records.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Common

Heap, Simon, Milton Keynes Council

1 Attachment

Mr Common

 

Please see letter attached.

 

Simon

Simon Heap
Committee Services and Scrutiny Manager
T: 01908 252567

[1][email address]
Link to council website [2]http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/

Milton Keynes Council | Civic Offices | 1 Saxon Gate East | Milton Keynes
MK9 3EJ

 

Visit the Milton Keynes Council web site at
https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk

Any personal data will be processed in line with the Data Protection
legislation, further details at https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/privacy

Please consider the environment and don't print this email unless you
really need to

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Heap, Simon, Milton Keynes Council

1 Attachment

Mr Common

 

Please see letter attached.

 

Simon

Simon Heap
Committee Services and Scrutiny Manager
T: 01908 252567

[1][email address]
Link to council website [2]http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/

Milton Keynes Council | Civic Offices | 1 Saxon Gate East | Milton Keynes
MK9 3EJ

 

Visit the Milton Keynes Council web site at
https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk

Any personal data will be processed in line with the Data Protection
legislation, further details at https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/privacy

Please consider the environment and don't print this email unless you
really need to

**** This email and any attachments hereto are strictly confidential and
intended solely for the addressee. It may contain information which is
privileged. If you are not the intended addressee, you must not disclose,
forward, copy or take any action in reliance of this email or attachments.
If you have received this email in error, please delete it and notify us
as soon as possible.

The anti-virus software used by Milton Keynes Council is updated regularly
in an effort to minimise the possibility of viruses infecting our systems.
However, you should be aware that there is no absolute guarantee that any
files attached to this email are virus free.****

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/

Brad Common left an annotation ()

This really is a laughable response.

First, there is no way that the actions documented by the Internal Reviewer happened within 24 hours of me initially logging the request to facilitate the next day response. That is a clear lie.

Second, is it really possible for public bodies to claim that activities carried out by their senior leaders in the capacity of their official role and in support of their organisation’s objectives to be of a “personal nature”?

I shall have to ask the ICO for their opinion on this

Dear Mr Heap,

Thanks for your letter of 16 November 2018.

On the process that has been followed, I am extremely sceptical that all the actions you have detailed could have feasibly been carried out in the 24 hours between me logging the request at 08:14 on 29 October and Ms Rehm replying at 09.00 on 30 October. Please could you clarify whether any of the actions took place following my request for an internal review or if you are claiming that they were all finished when Ms Rehm first replied.

On the content of the response, I do not accept that correspondence between two different Leaders of Milton Keynes Council representing two different political parties explicitly in their official capacity can genuinely be described as “personal statements”. The fact the statements were in support of an official Milton Keynes Council objective of facilitating the relocation of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes (as - for example - documented in Item 18 of Communities Committee on 6 February 2001 and the relevant minute) makes your assertion that they were personal statements highly improbable and merely a way to get around your legal duties to release the information under FOI legislation

I also have not received any response regarding the materials requested in part 3 and 4 of my initial request about correspondence with Peter Winkelman or Inter MK about the two FA panels.

I am minded to appeal your decision to the ICO and wanted to first provide you with the opportunity to reconsider your decision.

Yours sincerely,
Brad

Brad Common

Dear Mr Heap,

To aid your reconsideration, you should refer to page 50 and page 53 from the FA Panel report which clearly state that both Cllr Miles and former Cllr Wilson made their statements in their official capacity as elected officials rather than in a personal capacity.

The report is available: https://mkdsa.org.uk/2002Commissions%20d....

Yours sincerely,
Brad

Brad Common

Heap, Simon, Milton Keynes Council

Mr Common

Thank you for your email. I don't think I suggested that the various issues had been investigated in the 24 hour timescale you suggest.

However, if you are still unhappy with the outcome of the internal review you have the right to refer this matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office whose details I have provided below:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524510
www.ico.org.uk

Simon

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Dear Mr Heap,

Quoting from your letter summarising the findings of your internal review, you said that “I have now looked into the actions taken by colleagues to fulfil your Freedom of Information request”.

My Freedom of Information request was “fulfilled” by your colleague stating that no relevant information was held by MKC on this issue within 24 hours of the request being made.

It seems you are now telling me that the actions you listed in the letter were initiated by you as part of your review of the decision rather than, as your letter states, as part of the original FOI request.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Common

Heap, Simon, Milton Keynes Council

I will be out of the office until Wednesday 19 December 2018. Please ring my normal 'phone number to speak to a colleague 01908 25 2567, or forward your email to [email address] who will forward to an appropriate colleague.

Simon

Visit the Milton Keynes Council web site at https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk

Any personal data will be processed in line with the Data Protection legislation, further details at https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/privacy

Please consider the environment and don't print this email unless you really need to

**** This email and any attachments hereto are strictly confidential and intended solely for the addressee. It may contain information which is privileged. If you are not the intended addressee, you must not disclose, forward, copy or take any action in reliance of this email or attachments. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and notify us as soon as possible.

The anti-virus software used by Milton Keynes Council is updated regularly in an effort to minimise the possibility of viruses infecting our systems. However, you should be aware that there is no absolute guarantee that any files attached to this email are virus free.****

Dear Milton Keynes Council,

I would be grateful if you could address three outstanding issues with this request further to the correspondence provided through https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Firstly, contrary to the letter from Mr Heap, Cllr Miles confirmed in an email to Ms Rehm on 31 October 2018 that he “would not have given any Statement other than on Advisement of Officers at the time” i.e. the witness statement referred to by the FA Panel was clearly not made “on a personal basis” as Mr Heap asserts https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/5...

Second, Cllr Miles confirmed in the same email to Ms Rehm that he would not have deleted any relevant emails and that they would still be in his MKC Outbox as he has never cleared it. It also appears that his offer of carrying out further investigations to establish if he holds any information within the remit of this request has not been taken up.

Third, it appears that there has been no attempt to confirm with former Cllr Wilson whether or not she holds any information relating to the request (or at least my FOI request for correspondence held by Ms Rehm and Mr Heap relating to the original request and the internal review did not turn up anything).

I would be grateful if you could clarify on each of these three points. As I said, I am minded to appeal the decision to the ICO as I am not persuaded that MKC does not hold this information but I am keen not to unnecessarily waste MKC resources in triggering an investigation.

Yours faithfully,

Brad Common

Rehm, Miranda, Milton Keynes Council

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    EXT Re Freedom of Information request MK Council Evidence to FA Commission FOI Request.txt

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Dear Mr Common,
I provided a response to your above request earlier today, and received the attached email from yourself to indicate that the answers I provided had "fulfilled your request in full."

In light of the above, I do not understand this further request for clarification.

Kind regards,

Miranda Rehm
FOI Liaison Officer

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Dear Ms Rehm,

That was with regard to my request for the internal correspondence regarding *how the request was dealt with*.

This is a separate matter to the original request, whether or not MKC hold the information I requested and the apparently incorrect statements made by Mr Heap in his response about the witness statements being made on a personal basis.

I have requested further clarification because I can see from the internal correspondence that the email from Cllr Miles contradicts the response to the original request and that no attempt has been made to confirm whether former Cllr Wilson holds the information.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Common

Zammit, John, Milton Keynes Council

Dear Mr Common,

As Miranda has now left I will pick up this request for further clarification. I apologise for not getting back to you sooner, however I was on leave last week and this week has been very busy.

I aim to get a response to you on your queries next week.

Regards

John Zammit
Business Support Assistant

Democratic Services
T: 01908 254224
E: [email address]

Visit us online at: http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/

Milton Keynes Council | Democratic Services | Civic Offices | 1 Saxon Gate East | Milton Keynes | MK9 3EJ

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Dear Mr Zammit,

Will there be any further response to this from MKC regarding the incorrect statements in the Internal Review and the failure to explore fully whether or not MKC held the data or would the next step be raising this with the ICO?

Best wishes,

Brad Common

Zammit, John, Milton Keynes Council

Dear Mr Common,

Thank you for your email I will get a response to you soon, thank you for reminding me.

Regards

John Zammit
Business Support Assistant

Democratic Services
T: 01908 254224
E: [email address]

Visit us online at: http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/

Milton Keynes Council | Democratic Services | Civic Offices | 1 Saxon Gate East | Milton Keynes | MK9 3EJ

Make sure you are registered to vote

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Zammit,

Please could you clarify MK Council’s intentions for responding to this request.

Yours sincerely,

Brad Common