Dear John Atkins,

Freedom of Information Request, Oxford City Council – Reference: 11541

Thank you for your request regarding minutes from meetings discussing Oxford County Council's and Oxford Direct Services's COVID-19 responses, which was received on 21st October 2022.

Unfortunately, we are still working on this, and the final response to your request has been delayed. I wish to sincerely apologise for this delay, and any resulting inconvenience caused.  Due to an unprecedented volume of Freedom of Information Requests currently, some of our more complex requests are unfortunately exceeding the 20 working day deadline. We are working as hard as possible to respond in a timely manner, but we feel it is better to keep requestors informed.

Please be advised that we are actively working on collecting the necessary data to reply to your request, and will provide you with a response as soon as possible. Many thanks in advance for your patience and understanding – we feel it is more professional and diligent to take the time to provide you with a thorough and detailed reply, rather than rush the process and potentially give you give a lower quality and less helpful response.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Officer

| Freedom of Information Team | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St Aldates Chambers | St Aldates | Oxford | OX1 1DS |

For any Data Protection queries please send the email directly to the [email address] mailbox

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Dear John Atkins,

Freedom of Information Request, Oxford City Council – Reference: 11541
 
Our sincere apologies for the delay in replying to you following our previous email, and any resulting inconvenience caused. Please be assured that we have been actively working on providing a response to your request. However, further to the email below, I am writing to let you know that the Authority requires additional information. Section 1. (3) (a) of the FOIA provides that

“Where a public authority -

(a) Reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the information requested, and
(b) Has informed the applicant of that requirement,

the authority is not obliged to comply with subsection (1) unless it is supplied with that further information.”

You have requested information including copies of all documents/emails and minutes from meetings where the subject of the Council and ODS' response to Covid was discussed, including financial and operational issues. Are you able to further clarify what information it is that you are interested in receiving, please?

I have been liaising with a number of different teams and departments within our organisation to retrieve the data you requested, but, due to the scale of our organisation, which employs around 1300 staff including ODS, it will not be possible for us to provide you with every single document you have requested, since collecting this data will exceed the statutory time limitation of 18.5 working hours. imposed on us by Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, and therefore a complete set of communications and minutes is exempt from disclosure pursuant to this section of the Act.

If you could be more specific about the details you are interested in, we can ensure that the communications and minutes we provide you with are relevant and useful. It would also be helpful for you to clarify whether you are interested only in our initial response in 2020, or whether you require information concerning our ongoing responses throughout the progression of the pandemic.

Please note that the count of working days for responding to your request will be paused from 29th December 2022 until the Authority has been supplied with the further information specified in this email. Should the Council not receive a response to this email by Friday 13th January 2023, your request will be closed accordingly. If, subsequent to this date, you still require the information, we advise that you submit a new Freedom of Infornation request, providing more specific details about the information you require as per the advice in this email.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Officer

| Freedom of Information Team | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St Aldates Chambers | St Aldates | Oxford | OX1 1DS |

For any Data Protection queries please send the email directly to the [email address] mailbox

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Dear John Atkins,

Re: Freedom of Information Request, Oxford City Council – Reference: 11541

Further to the your clarification below, please see attached response to your Freedom of Information Act 2000 request, which we received on 21st October 2022. Our sincere apologies for the significant delay in responding to your request, and any resulting inconvenience caused.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Officer

| Freedom of Information Team | Law & Governance | Oxford City Council | St Aldates Chambers | St Aldates | Oxford | OX1 1DS |

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Dear John Atkins

Oxford City Council Freedom of Information – Reference: 11541

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your internal review request, received on 4 January 2023. Our response is attached.

Yours sincerely

Information Governance Officer

Freedom of Information Team | Law and Governance | Oxford City Council | Town Hall | St Aldate’s | Oxford | OX1 1BX 
Website: www.oxford.gov.uk | Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/OxfordCity | Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/OxfordCityCouncil

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Dear John Atkins,

Oxford City Council Freedom of Information – Reference: 11541

Information Commissioner’s Office case ref: IC-225409-N4J1 

Following our internal review response sent to you on 22 June 2023, under
section 16.1 of the FOIA (duty to provide advice and assistance) we are
checking that you have now received from us the information you require.

If you have not received the information please let us know and we will
log a new Freedom of Information request and respond accordingly, subject
to the information being held and any exemptions, including whether we can
provide the information under the FOIA time/cost limits. Please be advised
that the application of exemption s40 (personal data) to the information
we have already sent to you remains. Please also note that from 1 April
2023 Oxford Direct Services has taken responsibility for managing their
Freedom of Information requests therefore if you request information that
is held by them we will advise you to submit your request to the ODS FOI
team.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team | Law and Governance | Oxford City Council |
Town Hall | St Aldate’s | Oxford | OX1 1BX 

Website: [1]www.oxford.gov.uk | Follow us on Twitter:
[2]www.twitter.com/OxfordCity | Like us on Facebook:
[3]www.facebook.com/OxfordCityCouncil

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