'Preventing Violent Extremism' funding

The request was partially successful.

Dear Newham Borough Council,

Please could you confirm the amount of funding that the London Borough of Newham has received under the government's Prevent strategy for Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) in each year to date since the Pathfinder programme in 2007-2008 and provide:

A copy of LB Newham's current strategy document for delivering the Prevent strategy locally

A copy of the allocated budget for PVE spending in 2009-2010

A copy of the proposed budget for 2010-11

Membership of the PVE steering group

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

REQUESTER REFERENCE: C3242
ENQUIRY REFERENCE: E5742
Please quote your references when contacting the Council.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Thank you for your request for information received on 23/02/2010. We
are dealing with your request and plan to respond before 23/03/2010.

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact the Information
Governance Team on 020 8430 3737 or email us at:
[email address]

Yours Faithfully

Information Governance Team
Newham Council

Newham Council Publication Scheme is on: www.newham.gov.uk

NOTE: This communication is sent for and on behalf of the London Borough of Newham.
However the views expressed within it are not necessarily the views or policies of the Council. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this communication and any attachments is forbidden. This communication and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and may be confidential. If this has come to you in error you should immediately permanently destroy it.
You should take no action based on it or copy or show it to anyone and telephone the Council immediately with any issues on 0208 430 4444 or any other number provided in the communication. Please note that electronic communication is not considered a secure medium for sending information and therefore maybe at risk.
We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when using this form of communication with us. Although we have taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free and should run current anti-virus software. Please note that email may be monitored and checked to safeguard the council network from viruses, hoax messages or abuse of the Council's systems. Action may be taken against any malicious and deliberate attempts to infect the council network.
The information contained in this email maybe subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this email and your reply cannot be guaranteed.

Newham Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear Requester,

 Please find the response to your request attached.

If you experience any problems, please let us know.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the information
Governance Team on the details below.

If you are unhappy with our response made in relation to your request, you
can submit an appeal. This process is in three stages and is carried out
by one of Newham's Service Managers, the Head of Information Governance
Team and the Corporate Complaints Manager, respectively.

Regards

Information Governance Team
Information Governance
London Borough of Newham 
Information Governance- ICT

Newham Dockside

1000 Dockside Road

PO Box 65911

London

E16 2QU

Tel: - 0208-430-2000 Email:- [1][email address]
Fax :- 020 8430  1504

NOTE: This communication is sent for and on behalf of the London Borough
of Newham.

However the views expressed within it are not necessarily the views or
policies of the Council. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this communication and any attachments is forbidden. This
communication and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and
may be confidential. If this has come to you in error you should
immediately permanently destroy it.

You should take no action based on it or copy or show it to anyone and
telephone the Council immediately with any issues on 0208 430 4444 or any
other number provided in the communication. Please note that electronic
communication is not considered a secure medium for sending information
and therefore maybe at risk.

We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when using
this form of communication with us. Although we have taken steps to ensure
that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in
keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are
actually virus free and should run current anti-virus software. Please
note that email may be monitored and checked to safeguard the council
network from viruses, hoax messages or abuse of the Council's systems.
Action may be taken against any malicious and deliberate attempts to
infect the council network.

The information contained in this email maybe subject to public disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is
legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this email and your
reply cannot be guaranteed.

 

References

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1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]

Dear Newham Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Newham Borough Council's handling of my FOI request ''Preventing Violent Extremism' funding'.

The FoIA request included asking for a copy of the allocated budget for PVE spending in 2009-2010 and a copy of the proposed budget for 2010-11.

Whilst it may not have been possible to provide a copy of the budget for 2010/11 because Newham's action plan was "undergoing review and change", there should have been no reason not to provide - eleven months into the financial year - a copy of the allocated budget PVE spending in 2009-2010. I would expect this to breakdown, in detail, expenditure on PVE supported projects, including information on salary costs, project expenditure, publicity or other budgeted items. Instead, the review of the action plan was used as a reason for providing no budgetary information at all.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pr...

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Dear Newham Borough Council,

Please can you confirm that you have received my request on 8 May for an internal review of the information provided on 'Preventing Violent Extremism' funding (enquiry reference E5742). See:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pr...

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

Dear Mr Blowe,

We are writing to confirm that we received your request for an internal review dated 08 May 2010. We are processing your request and will respond as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU
Tel: 020 3373 7912

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Dear Newham Borough Council,

A further 15 working days has passed since I requested an internal review of council's handling of my FOI request ''Preventing Violent Extremism' funding' (ref E5742).

This request should not have required a complicated or lengthy review as it relates to two documents - the allocated budget for PVE spending in 2009-2010 (a detailed breakdown of expenditure on PVE supported projects last year) and a copy of the budget for 2010-11.

We are almost two full months into the current financial year and it seems reasonable that information on spending in the last year, plus a budget for this year, should be straightforward to disclose.

If you are unable to do so by 4 June (a further 20 working days since my request for a review), then regrettably I will need to approach the Information Commissioner to review the council's response.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

Dear Mr Blowe,

Please be assured that we are dealing with your request for an internal review of your request for information. We note that we have provided most the information requested.

The only information we have not provided is a copy of "the current strategy document and budget allocations for the current and next financial year".

We will respond to your request for an internal review in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU

Tel: 020 3373 7912
Fax: 020 8430 1504

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Newham Borough Council

Dear Mr Blowe

The document requested is not yet available, a meeting will be held on 04 June 2010 to finalise matters related to PVE spending in 2009/10. We will contact you after the meeting to confirm if we are able to release the requested information.

Thank you for your patience and kind understanding.

Yours sincerely

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU
DDI 020 3373 7912 EXT 37912

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Dear Newham Borough Council,

Thank you for your message. I am very concerned that a meeting is apparently necessary to 'finalise matters related to PVE spending in 2009/10' and the inference that this meeting will discuss how expenditure for 2009-10 will be presented or whether its release will be authorised at all.

If the council chooses to reject the release of PVE expenditure for the last financial year, I ask that you cite one of the Freedom of Information Act exemptions for each piece of information you refuse to release.

Please note that my original request also included a request for a "copy of the proposed budget for 2010-11". I trust this will also be available after the meeting on 4 June.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Dear Newham Borough Council,

REQUESTER REFERENCE: C3242
ENQUIRY REFERENCE: E5742

I trust that yesterday's meeting went ahead and that the information I have requested will be released on Monday.

Many thanks,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr. Blowe,

As per our email dated 1st June 2010, please find attached our response to your request for an internal review.

If you require further information please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team on (020) 33737912 or email us at [email address]. Kindly review the Council appeal process if you are not happy with our response.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU
Tel: 020 3373 4634
Fax: 020 8430 1504

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Kevin Blowe left an annotation ()

A complaint has been sent to the Information Commissioner.

Dear Newham Borough Council,

Thank you for your message. As I believe that your grounds for refusing to provide detailed information on expenditure in 2009-10 is an attempt to withhold information that could easily be provided now - especially as I have not challenged the lack of availability of the action plan itself and only the non-release of budgetary information - I have submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

As far as I am concerned, the fact that the council is conducting a review of its action plan is an insufficient reason for a lack of transparency regarding public money that has already been spent.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

Dear Mr Blowe,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 14 June 2010, your request will be handled as a stage 2 complaint.

We will provide a response to your second request for an internal review by 05 July 2010.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU
DDI 020 3373 7912 EXT 37912

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Dear Newham Borough Council,

Thank you for your message. I am of course happy for my concerns, disputing the reasons given for rejecting part of my information request, to be treated as a stage 2 complaint, if that helps to find a sensible resolution.

You should, however, be aware that a formal complaint has already been submitted to the Information Commissioner.

Yours faithfully,

Kevin Blowe

Newham Borough Council

Dear Mr Blowe

 

Your concerns have been passed to me to investigate as a Stage 2 Freedom
of Information Appeal. As per our procedures we have 15 working days to
investigate, I will provide you with a full response once I have
investigated the matter by 5th July 2010.

 

If you have any questions please do come back to me.

 

Kind regards

 

Gemma Gordon-Johnson I Head of Customer Complaints and Members Enquiries
I Democratic Services

Legal Services Directorate

London Borough of Newham

Newham Dockside I 1000 Dockside Road I London E16 2QU

DDI: 020 3373 4525I Int: 34525

 

NOTE: This communication is sent for and on behalf of the London Borough
of Newham.

However the views expressed within it are not necessarily the views or
policies of the Council. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this communication and any attachments is forbidden. This
communication and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and
may be confidential. If this has come to you in error you should
immediately permanently destroy it.

You should take no action based on it or copy or show it to anyone and
telephone the Council immediately with any issues on 020 3373 4444 or any
other number provided in the communication. Please note that electronic
communication is not considered a secure medium for sending information
and therefore maybe at risk.

We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when using
this form of communication with us. Although we have taken steps to ensure
that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in
keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are
actually virus free and should run current anti-virus software. Please
note that email may be monitored and checked to safeguard the council
network from viruses, hoax messages or abuse of the Council's systems.
Action may be taken against any malicious and deliberate attempts to
infect the council network.

The information contained in this email maybe subject to public disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is
legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this email and your
reply cannot be guaranteed.

 

Newham Borough Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Blowe,

Further to our e-mail of 16 June 2010, please find attached our response to your Stage 2 complaint.

Yours sincerely,

Information Governance
London Borough of Newham
Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road, London E16 2QU
DDI 020 3373 7912 EXT 37912

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