Payments to Trade Union
Dear Post Office Limited,
Please could you supply me with the details of all payments made to the national federation of subpostmasters from 01/01/2012 to 01/02/2013.
Yours faithfully,
Pat Aspinall
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Ref: CALS-94LKLB
Thank you for your email received on 1 February 2013, which we are
considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act you
should expect a reply from us to be sent by 1 March 2013, which is twenty
working days from receipt of your request.
If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving
a revised date by which we will reply.
If in the meantime, you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 020 7250 2647 or
alternatively email or write to us. Please be assured that we are giving
this our attention and will get back to you shortly.
Yours sincerely
Cory Alexis
Freedom of Information Support
Post Office Ltd
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trademarks of Post Office Ltd
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Ref: Freedom of Information Request – CALS-94LKLB
I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited on
01 February 2013, which I am dealing with under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.
In your email you have requested information to the following question:
Please could you supply me with the details of all payments made to the
National Federation of Subpostmasters from 01/01/2012 to 01/02/2013?
I can confirm that we do hold the information you have requested.
Post Office Ltd have made £178K in payment to the NFSP for facilities
payments within the period you have requested, as advised in our previous
responses, dated 11 October 2012 (Ref: CALS-8Y5D25) and 12 November 2012
(Ref; OOLO-8Z7CH4) these payments would be reported within the NFSP annual
accounts.
Post Office Ltd has also made £3K in payment to the NFSP for the NFSP
Benevolent Fund within the period you have requested.
In addition Post Office Ltd has made payment of £7.3k, for the period to
the NFSP for attendance and sponsorship at the NFSP Annual Conference, as
previously explained the payments cover the cost of Post Office employees
attending, exhibition space and our annual sponsorship of a conference
dinner.
Lastly Post Office Ltd has made payment of £350.2K for Network
Transformation and support activities to the NFSP for the period. These
payments cover items such as the expenses and costs of the NFSP attending
road shows held for subpostmaster’s, the cost of NFSP meetings, workshops
and extraordinary NFSP member communication costs related to the Network
Transformation Programme.
Post Office Ltd also purchases advertising space within the Subpostmaster
magazine. However, Post Office Ltd believes that this information is
exempt from disclosure under Section 43 (2) (Commercial Interests) of the
Freedom of Information Act.
Commercial Interests
Post Office Limited believes that disclosure of information relating to
financial spend to another party for the purposes of purchasing
advertising space is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Post
Office, which could be used by other parties in negotiations with Post
Office Ltd and the NFSP.
Public Interest
Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption and therefore the public interest
test must be applied. This involves weighing the balance of public
interest in maintaining the exemption or releasing the information. Post
Office Ltd understands that there is public interest in promoting the
transparency and understanding of matters which are of interest to the
public. However, there is also public interest in allowing the normal
course of commercial activity to take place and would not be served by
placing Post Office Ltd at a commercial disadvantage in the marketing
market. On balance in our view, the greater public interest lies with
maintaining the exemption.
I hope the information I have provided on this occasion is useful, however
if you are dissatisfied with the handling of this response, you do have a
right to request an internal review. You can do this by writing to the
address below stating your reasons for your internal review request.
Senior Engagement & Involvement Manager
Information Rights Team
Post Office Ltd
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
[1][Post Office request email]
If, having requested an internal review by Post Office Limited, you are
still not satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to
the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
[2]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Kerry Moodie
Information Rights Team Leader
www.postoffice.co.uk/our-publication-sch...
Post Office Ltd
Information Rights Team
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trademarks of Post Office Ltd.
Dear FOIA,
Thank you for your reply, could you please tell me how many times POL have purchased advertising space within the Subpostmaster magazine for the same period as my request.
Yours sincerely,
Pat Aspinall
Dear Ms Aspinall,
I am writing to correct an error in my response to you regarding payments
made to the NFSP for facilities payments.
The correct information should have read as follows:
Post Office Ltd have made £175K in payment to the NFSP for facilities
payments within the period you have requested, as advised in our previous
responses, dated 11 October 2012 (Ref: CALS-8Y5D25) and 12 November 2012
(Ref; OOLO-8Z7CH4) these payments would be reported within the NFSP annual
accounts.
Regards,
Kerry Moodie I Information Rights Team Leader
148 Old Street, 1^st Floor, Old Street Wing
LONDON EC1V 9HQ
020 7250 2876 Postline: 5460 2876
07553 364589 Mobex: 5371 3188
[1][email address].uk
[2]http://www.postoffice.co.uk/our-publicat...
Confidential Information:
This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and
may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorised
review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
intended recipient please contact me by reply email and destroy all copies
of the original message.
From: FOIA
Sent: 01 March 2013 15:39
To: [FOI #148283 email]
Subject: Freedom of Information Request – CALS-94LKLB
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Ref: Freedom of Information Request – CALS-94LKLB
I am writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited on
01 February 2013, which I am dealing with under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.
In your email you have requested information to the following question:
Please could you supply me with the details of all payments made to the
National Federation of Subpostmasters from 01/01/2012 to 01/02/2013?
I can confirm that we do hold the information you have requested.
Post Office Ltd have made £178K in payment to the NFSP for facilities
payments within the period you have requested, as advised in our previous
responses, dated 11 October 2012 (Ref: CALS-8Y5D25) and 12 November 2012
(Ref; OOLO-8Z7CH4) these payments would be reported within the NFSP annual
accounts.
Post Office Ltd has also made £3K in payment to the NFSP for the NFSP
Benevolent Fund within the period you have requested.
In addition Post Office Ltd has made payment of £7.3k, for the period to
the NFSP for attendance and sponsorship at the NFSP Annual Conference, as
previously explained the payments cover the cost of Post Office employees
attending, exhibition space and our annual sponsorship of a conference
dinner.
Lastly Post Office Ltd has made payment of £350.2K for Network
Transformation and support activities to the NFSP for the period. These
payments cover items such as the expenses and costs of the NFSP attending
road shows held for subpostmaster’s, the cost of NFSP meetings, workshops
and extraordinary NFSP member communication costs related to the Network
Transformation Programme.
Post Office Ltd also purchases advertising space within the Subpostmaster
magazine. However, Post Office Ltd believes that this information is
exempt from disclosure under Section 43 (2) (Commercial Interests) of the
Freedom of Information Act.
Commercial Interests
Post Office Limited believes that disclosure of information relating to
financial spend to another party for the purposes of purchasing
advertising space is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Post
Office, which could be used by other parties in negotiations with Post
Office Ltd and the NFSP.
Public Interest
Section 43(2) is a qualified exemption and therefore the public interest
test must be applied. This involves weighing the balance of public
interest in maintaining the exemption or releasing the information. Post
Office Ltd understands that there is public interest in promoting the
transparency and understanding of matters which are of interest to the
public. However, there is also public interest in allowing the normal
course of commercial activity to take place and would not be served by
placing Post Office Ltd at a commercial disadvantage in the marketing
market. On balance in our view, the greater public interest lies with
maintaining the exemption.
I hope the information I have provided on this occasion is useful, however
if you are dissatisfied with the handling of this response, you do have a
right to request an internal review. You can do this by writing to the
address below stating your reasons for your internal review request.
Senior Engagement & Involvement Manager
Information Rights Team
Post Office Ltd
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
[3][Post Office request email]
If, having requested an internal review by Post Office Limited, you are
still not satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to
the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
[4]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Kerry Moodie
Information Rights Team Leader
[5]www.postoffice.co.uk/our-publication-scheme
Post Office Ltd
Information Rights Team
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trademarks of Post Office Ltd.
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Ref: KFME-95GDGP
Thank you for your email received on 03 March 2013, which we are
considering under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the Act you
should expect a reply from us to be sent by 03 April 2013, which is twenty
working days from receipt of your request.
If for any reason we are unable to provide you with a full response within
that time, we will contact you explaining the reasons for this and giving
a revised date by which we will reply.
If in the meantime, you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 020 7250 2647 or
alternatively email or write to us. Please be assured that we are giving
this our attention and will get back to you shortly.
Yours sincerely
O. Olabopo
Freedom of Information Support
[1]http://www.postoffice.co.uk/our-publicat...
Post Office Ltd
Information Rights Team
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Ltd.
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Freedom of Information Requests:
OOLO-954ES6, OOLO-954FP2, OOLO-954FUM, KFME-959EMP, KFME-959EXN,
KFME-95GDGP, OOLO-95LBXR and OOLO-95QBV7
I am writing in response to your emails received on 19, 20, 22 February,
3, 7 and 11 March 2013; a total of 8 requests which I am dealing with
under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).
In considering your 8 emails I have estimated that the cost of complying
with your requests would exceed the appropriate limit; this is because of
the aggregated costs of dealing with more than one request or similar
requests received from you since the 19 February. In addition, some of
these requests are similar in nature and content to a number of other
requests received from you in the last 60 working days and on the basis of
the evidence before us, I am also aggregating the current requests with
all preceding requests for the purposes of calculating costs and assessing
the application of the Freedom of Information Regulations 2004
(Appropriate Limit and Fees).
The appropriate limit is specified in Regulations 2004 and for Post Office
Ltd is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person
spending 18 hours in determining whether the information is held, and
locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Consequently Post
Office Limited is not obliged under Section 12 (1) of the Act to respond
to your requests.
We have determined costs on the basis that we consider these requests and
future such requests to be part of a series of requests from an individual
or group of individuals acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign.
Aggregation of requests is permitted by the Information Commissioner's
Office in these circumstances. Any such requests received within 60
working days of each other can be aggregated under the Fees Regulations;
we shall continue to consider aggregation of costs associated with all
such requests.
It is clear to us that you have a real interest in the operations of Post
Office Ltd; we have received 38 requests for recorded information from you
in a little over 6 months. As such we would offer you the opportunity to
meet with us; we believe a meeting would be mutually beneficial. If you
would like to take advantage of this opportunity let me know by emailing
me at [1][Post Office request email].
I am sorry that I cannot provide you with the information you have
requested this time, if you are dissatisfied with the handling of this
response, you do have a right to request an internal review. You can do
this by writing to the address below stating your reasons for your
internal review request:
Senior Engagement & Involvement Manager
Information Rights Team
Post Office Ltd
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
[2][Post Office request email]
If, having requested an internal review by Post Office Limited, you are
still not satisfied with our response you also have a right of appeal to
the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
O. Olabopo
Freedom of Information Support
[4]http://www.postoffice.co.uk/our-publicat...
Post Office Ltd
Information Rights Team
1^st Floor
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trademarks of Post Office Ltd.
Dear Post Office Limited,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Post Office Limited's handling of my FOI request 'Payments to Trade Union'.
Thank you for your reply. In the interest of openness and fairness, I would like to ask you to reconsider my request. I am of the opinion that Section 12 (1) of the Act has wrongly been cited in this instance.
Thank you for the kind offer, unfortunately I have to decline your invitation as I am very busy with several projects at the moment.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pa...
Yours faithfully,
Pat Aspinall
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Ref: Internal Review under the Freedom of Information Act – KFME-965GXX
Thank you for your email received 21 March 2013 requesting an internal
review of Post Office Limited’s reply to your request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is receiving our
attention and we will write to you again once the internal review has been
concluded.
In accordance with guidelines from the Information Commissioner’s Office,
Post Office Ltd will answer all appeals and requests for internal review
of FOI requests as soon as it reasonably can. This will usually be within
20 working days and in any case no later than 40 days from receipt of the
appeal.
If in the meantime, you have any questions or would like to contact us
about your request, please contact us by telephone 020 7250 2647 or
alternatively email or write to us. Please be assured that we are giving
this our attention and will get back to you shortly.
Yours sincerely
Kerry Moodie
Information Rights Team Leader
Post Office Ltd
Information Rights Team
1^st Floor,
Old Street Wing
148 Old Street
London
EC1V 9HQ
Post Office Ltd is registered in England and Wales. Registered No.
2154540. Registered Office 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ. Post Office
and the Post Office logo are registered trademarks of Post Office Ltd.
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Please find attached a letter regarding your Internal Review Request.
Regards,
Kerry Moodie I Information Rights Team Leader
[1]split
1^st Floor, Old Street Wing, 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ
020 7250 2847
[2]Footer 5
Dear FOIA,
The Commissioner considers that a reasonable time for completing an internal review is 20 working days from the date of the request for review. There may be a small number of cases which involve exceptional circumstances where it may be reasonable to take longer. In those circumstances, the public authority should, as a matter of good practice, notify the requester and explain why more time is needed.
Yours sincerely,
Pat Aspinall
Dear Ms Aspinall,
Please find a response attached to your Internal Review request.
Regards,
Kerry Moodie I Information Rights Team Leader
[1]split
1^st Floor, Old Street Wing, 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ
020 7250 2647
[2]Footer 5
Dear FOIA,
Thank you for your response. To be fair and trying to keep cost down I did withdraw four of the requests as you were aware, this was before I quoted misapplication of Section 12 (1). Could you not have offered me reasonable advice and assistance about how to narrow my requests down at the time of your refusal notice.
Having reflected on my request (Post Office Ltd Directors Fee) I have since learned you will be releasing this information to the public in your annual report, which I am of the opinion was at the time known by you, and release of this information would have been refused as previously done in similar requests.
Would it be fair to say of the 38 requests that you so rightly mention, less than half have been answered fully.
Just to add, the Post Office network is going through major change, and Post Office Ltd needs to be open to public scrutiny, the future of this great British institution that has been serving our communities for over 300 years is in your hands, all I ask for is openness, transparency and accountability. My last resort sadly is that I will have to consider taking my complaint to Information Commissioner.
Yours sincerely,
Pat Aspinall
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Peter Woodthorpe left an annotation ()
I am in receipt of a letter from Jo Swinson MP at the dept for BIS stating that it is her understanding that POL has made NO payments to NFSP benevolent fund, directly contradicting POL's reply under the FOIA. SOMEONE is being misled. Ms Aspinall, please contact me if you would like a full copy of this letter.