Dear Potto Parish Council, please could you provide me with a copy of the PFK Littlejohn preliminary finding report as quoted in the Potto Parish Council "Matters Arising from last month’s meeting" item in the February 2016 council meeting minutes. I request that the information is provided in an electronic format (as cited in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, section 102 and amended by regulation 21 of the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (RPSI))

Yours faithfully,
Mr Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC, thanks for the prompt response. Unfortunately, it appears that you have provided a different document to the one I asked for in this FOI request. The document you have provided is headed "Decision and statement of reasons" and is dated 12/08/2016. Clearly a document with a published date of August 2016 could not be the same one I quoted from minutes of a meeting held about six months earlier.
Please could you provide what I actually asked for, which is a copy of the PKF Littlejohn preliminary finding report cited in the Potto Parish Council "Matters Arising from last month’s meeting" item in the February 2016 council meeting minutes.

Thanks

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC acting FOI Officer,
please could you give me an indication of when you are likely to arrive at a view about whether releasing information relating to the audit is permitted or otherwise, in accordance with Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act 1998.

Thanks, Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC, thank you for the update.
Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act 1998, Article 1, says that information may be released: "(a) with the consent of the body or person to whom the information relates". It seems clear that it is the council's free choice as to whether or not you consent and that there is no lawful impediment to providing me with the information - if you consent.

The completion of the audit is now long overdue and no indication has been given as to when it is likely to be completed. Accordingly I confirm that I am not satisfied with your response thus far and now wish to accept your offer to hold an internal review of the way you have dealt with this freedom of information request.

Please ensure that minutes of the requested internal review meeting called for are published and indicate clearly if your external auditor (EA) stated that you must not release the information sought from this FOI, or if your EA advised that you can choose to embargo or release the information.

If you were advised by the EA that Potto PC can choose to embargo or release this information, please ensure that the minutes of the external review meeting include the following where applicable.

• Member(s) of the council proposed to embargo the release of information requested
• The date, time and title of the council meeting the proposal was made
• The wording of the resolution arising from the embargo proposal
• The rationale used to support the resolution.
• A record of the vote

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC,
I contacted you on 10/12/2016 to confirm that I wished to accept your offer to conduct an internal review. At the time of writing you have not replied to indicate when you intend to hold the requested Internal Review meeting.

In addition, I note that the agenda for the 21st December 2016 council meeting does not include this topic anywhere.

I trust you will discuss the matter at the 21/12/2016 meeting, and record the proceedings of the discussion under agenda item 12, "Any other business". If PPC do not agree at the 21/12/2016 meeting to provide a copy of the preliminary finding letter to me, then I think it is reasonable to expect those present to resolve to have an internal review meeting scheduled at the earliest possible opportunity. Please keep me informed of the outcome of the Council meeting of 21st December 2016 with regard to this Freedom of Information request as soon as possible and well before it's minutes are published.

Thanks, Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC, please could you inform me what the outcome was of the internal review I requested regarding this Freedom of Information request. The review was held on 18th JANUARY 2017 as item 10 of the Monthly meeting of Potto Parish Council.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, whilst I understand that preparing the draft minutes of the January full council meeting may take some time, the outcome of the internal review could easily be provided in a few sentences.
It seems to me that the only outcomes are:
To provide the information requested
Refuse to provide the information along with a reason or
Indicate that it was not possible to arrive at a decision either way and that further advice is being sought.

Accordingly, please will you let me know what the outcome of the review was promptly rather than having me wait until the ratified minutes of the entire Parish Council meeting are published.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto PC, thank you for providing a summary of the January internal review held to consider how this FOI has been dealt with. In response, I would point out that it was not obvious to me that the PFK Littlejohn preliminary finding report was sent to a member of the public (rather than to the Parish Council).
Nor is it clear how I could have conceivably arrived at such a conclusion since I have never seen it.
Was is clear is that the PKF Decision and Statement of Reasons.pdf document you posted on this website clearly was not sent to Potto PC but appears to have been sent by the external auditor to a member of the public.
It follows that PPC ought to have secured consent from the recipient of the PKF Decision and Statement of Reasons document to have it published if they were acting in line with Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act 1998.

Before I proceed further please can you clarify if the PFK Littlejohn preliminary finding report and Statement of reasons report were both sent by PFK Littlejohn to the same person.

Yours sincerely, Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, I asked you over a week ago on 4th February 2017 if the Statement of reasons report was sent from your auditor to the same member of the public as the preliminary finding report which I seek via this FOI request. This is a very simple yes or no enquiry. Please could you provide a response as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear PottoPC,
Thank you for confirming that both audit documents were sent to the same individual. It would be an inconsistent approach and interpretation of applicable legislation to make one of the audit documents available, but not to disclose the other.
Accordingly, I look forward to receiving a copy of the Preliminary findings report as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, can I suggest that you try again to contact the individual to which both audit documents were sent, and seek their approval to disclose your copy of the Preliminary findings report as soon as possible in response to this FOI. If you could supply a copy of your E mail or letter to them with appropriate redaction , and make them aware of my FOI via this website, it would be appreciated. If approval is given and your copy published it would bring this FOI to a speedy conclusion.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, please can you indicate with a simple Yes or No reply if the council obtained prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016.
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, can I ask again for a simple Yes or No reply - Did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016.
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, once again can I ask that you respond to my most recent question of nearly a month ago, namely a simple Yes or No reply to the following - did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, once again can I ask that you respond to my most recent question of May 8th, which I had also asked you month earlier too. A simple Yes or No reply to the following - did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?
Also, please note that the April 2017 Council meeting minutes mins and May 2017 agenda are not published on your website. I trust you will seek to rectify this.
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, once again can I ask that you respond to my most recent question of June 1st, which I had also asked you on two previous occasions. A simple Yes or No reply to the following - did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?
Also, please note that the May 2017 Council meeting minutes are not published on your website. I trust you will seek to rectify this.
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council, once again can I ask that you respond to my most recent question of June 1st, which I had also asked you on three previous occasions. A simple Yes or No reply to the following - did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decsion and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?
Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council,
once again can I ask that you respond to my most recent question which now goes back to June 1st, 2017 which I had also asked you on four previous occasions. Your reluctance to respond is curious.
A simple Yes or No reply to the following will suffice - did the council obtain prior consent from the parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decision and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson

Dear Potto Parish Council,
I asked on several occasions that you provide a simple Yes or No reply to the following - did the council obtain prior consent from a parish elector to publish his or her's Auditors decision and Statements of Reasons letter which you posted on this website on 10 November 2016?
I note that you have a track record of failing to meet your obligations under the FOI Act 2000 as demonstrated by decision notices FS50680859 and FS50672279.

I make this final request to respond to the question I put to you above. If you fail to respond, I will assume that you have something to hide, and suggest that any other parties looking at this FOI might well be drawn to making the same conclusion.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Robertson