Dear Robert Whittaker

Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Information Request ENQ-694668-M6Z6V9

Thank you for your request for information received on 24/03/2024.

We have up to 20 working days in which to deal with your request.

If we require clarification of your request we will contact you to explain this, and the 20 working-day period will then start from the day that we receive your clarification.

We will inform you in advance if there is a charge for supplying copies of any information, and we will provide an explanation if any information which we hold is not released to you.

If the requested information contains references to any third parties, we may need to seek their views before we can decide whether or not to release the information to you. In such cases we will not share your own personal details with third parties.

Should you have any queries regarding your request, please contact the team by email at [Norfolk County Council request email] or by telephone on 01603 222661.

Please also note for future reference that requests can be submitted online. Further information and the online request form can be found via the following link:
About the FOI Act and making a request - Norfolk County Council

Yours sincerely

Information Governance Team
Strategy and Transformation Department
County Hall , 5th Floor

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Dear Robert Whittaker

Freedom of Information Request-694668-M6Z6V9

I refer to your request for information dated: 24 March 2024

You asked for:

• a copy of parts two and three of the Council's current Transport Asset
Management Plan.

Our response:

Section 21(1) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provides that
information is exempt from disclosure under the Act if it is reasonably
accessible to you by other means.

As this information is accessible to you, your request has been considered
and is refused under Section 21(1) of the FOIA. To be helpful, this is
where the information can be accessed: -

Within the details provided at the webpage link you attached within your
request, [1]Transport Asset Management Plan - Norfolk County Council,  it
is explained that

“To request a full PDF copy of our current Transport Asset Management Plan
(TAMP), please email [email address].”

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your request, you have the
right of appeal through the Council’s internal review procedure by setting
out the grounds of your appeal in writing to:

[2][Norfolk County Council request email]

or Information Compliance Team

County Hall

Martineau Lane

Norwich

NR1 2DH

An appeal should be submitted within 40 working days of the date of this
notice and should be identified as "EIR Appeal".

If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the appeal procedure, you may apply
to the Information Commissioner for a decision whether your request for
information has been dealt with in accordance with the Regulations.  Refer
to the ICO Website at: [3]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ for advice on how
to report a concern.  Or you can write to them at:

First Contact Team

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Senior Information Compliance Officer 

Information Compliance Team, Insight and Analytics, Strategy and
Transformation 

Tel Dept: 01603 222661

County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich 

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Acknowledgement of Appeal

Dear Robert Whittaker

Ref: ENQ-694668-M6Z6V9

Your appeal is acknowledged, and an internal review will now be undertaken.

Timescales for review

Whilst the Freedom of Information Act does not stipulate a timeframe for response to an appeal, the Information Commissioner has a general expectation that an internal review will be completed within 20 working days.

The Environmental Information Regulations stipulate that an internal review should be completed within 40 working days. However, the Information Commissioner has a general expectation that EIR internal reviews should be completed within 20 working days unless they are complex.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance Team
Strategy and Transformation Department
County Hall , 5th Floor

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Dear Mr Whittaker,

The Internal Review is complete and is currently awaiting sign off. This will be chased to enable us to respond to you as soon as possible.

My apologies for the delay.

Stephanie Williams, Information Compliance Team Manager
Norfolk County Council
Information Compliance Team, Insight and Analytics, Strategy and Transformation Directorate
County Hall, Norwich
I am working flexibly - so whilst it suits me to email now, I do not expect a response or action outside of your own working hours

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Dear Robert Whittaker

Following your appeal, I have now undertaken an internal review of the
County Council’s original response.

Background

On 24 March 2024 you requested the following information:

Your web page for the Council's Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP)
contains a link to a PDF document for Part 1 of the TAMP. Page 2 of this
document says that "The Norfolk TAMP contains three parts" but the PDF
document includes only the first of these.

I would like to obtain a copy of parts two and three of the Council's
current Transport Asset Management Plan. Ideally, you would upload the
documents to your website and link them from the page above, so they would
be available to anyone without needing to ask you and wait for a response.
(I believe that all three parts of the previous TAMP were available from
your website.)

In your appeal on 4 April 2024, you indicated that you felt Norfolk County
Council should review the response because:

I am afraid I must contest your application of FOIA s21 to the information
I have requested. FOIA s21(3) states: "information which is held by a
public authority ... is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the
applicant merely because the information is available from the public
authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in
accordance with the authority’s publication scheme...". I contend that the
requested information is not being made available in accordance with the
Council's publication scheme, and thus it cannot be regarded as
"reasonably accessible to the applicant" under s21.

Unfortunately, it is not clear to me from your website whether or not the
Council has formally adopted the Information Commissioner's Model
Publication Scheme [1] in full unamended form. The Council's Publication
Scheme is described on its website at [2], but the Model Scheme itself is
not reproduced in full there. I would be be grateful if you could confirm
whether or not you have adopted the full Model Scheme. But in any case,  I
will deal with both eventualities here.

If you have not adopted the Commissioner's Model Publication Scheme, then
I believe your current Publication Scheme is invalid under FOIA s19(1)(a),
and thus you are not able to claim s21 on any information that is only
available on request.

If you have adopted the Commissioner's Model Publication Scheme, then one
of the requirements listed in it is "Where it is within the capability of
a public authority, information will be provided on a website." I believe
it would be well within the Council's capability to publish the requested
information on its website. (In particular the Council has done so in the
past.) So by not doing so now, the Council is not making the requested
information available in accordance with the Council's publication scheme.
Hence s21 is not engaged.

In the light of these arguments, I would be grateful if you would
reconsider your response. Should you decide to publish the requested
information on your website after all, I would be happy to withdraw this
request, and thus avoid the need for the Council to respond to this
internal review.

After reviewing the publication scheme in use at Norfolk County Council is
it apparent that it does require updating. This work is now underway. It
is worth noting that the Environmental Information Regulations under which
this request could have been handled do not require a formal publication
scheme:

“The Regulations do not require you to maintain a publication scheme, but
we recommend you do so to help you comply with the requirement to publish
environmental information proactively.” ICO
([1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/eir...)

It is clear that the ICO believes having a scheme is best practice for
environmental information. To date Norfolk County Council has used the
existing scheme to cover relevant data. This too will be updated as part
of the work above.

The TAMP is normally published in full (all three parts), however at the
time of your request parts 2 and 3 required updating to meet the Council’s
accessibility standards for web publishing. The full document was
available via email but should have been sent in response to the FOI
request.

There are redactions applied, in line with Regulation 13(1) of the
Environmental Information Regulations. As this is a release of the
information under this legislation the redactions must be in place.

Conclusion

I find that your appeal is upheld to the extent that the information
should have been released as it was not available online and because the
publication scheme was not in the format required by the ICO. This
information is now attached.

If you are dissatisfied after pursuing the appeals procedure, you may
apply to the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Act for a
decision whether your request for information has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of Part I of the Act.  Refer to the ICO
Website at: [2]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ for advice on how to report a
concern.  Or you can write to them at:

First Contact Team

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane, Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

If you remain unhappy with the way the council has conducted itself
regarding the issue of the location of the Beryl Bike station or the way
it has interpreted the procurement and contracting process and notices,
you can contact the Compliments and Complaints Team here: [3]Contact us -
Norfolk County Council

Yours sincerely

Information Compliance Team Manager

Norfolk County Council 

Information Compliance Team, Insight and Analytics, Strategy and
Transformation Directorate 

Tel Dept: 01603 222661

County Hall, Norwich

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