Reconnecting Railways - returning services to Consett in the North East

The request was refused by Department for Transport.

Dear Department for Transport,

Please supply me with any information, however submitted or since provided to yourselves, in connection with securing and implementing a feasibility study of the restoration of the railway link between Consett and the conurbation(s) close to the River Tyne.

In particular please provide any map, description of route, or written reference to the need for demolition of any structure(s) that have been received.

Yours faithfully,

Owen Temple

Department for Transport

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information which
has been allocated reference number P0019714.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Governance Division
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Restoring Your Railway Correspondence, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Temple

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request of the 23^rd April 2021
regarding information in connection with securing and implementing a
feasibility study of the restoration of the railway link between Consett
and the conurbation(s) close to the River Tyne. Please find attached the
Department’s response.

 

Kind regards,
Ben Newsham

 

[1][IMG]          Ben Newsham 
Policy and Communications Adviser, Restoring Your
Railway, Rail Infrastructure Central 

Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR  

       07812483862
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

show quoted sections

Ben Newsham, Department for Transport

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Temple,

 

I write further to your request for an internal review of FOI response
F0019714. I note that you disagree with the Department’s blanket use of
the s43(2) commercial interests exemption and have asked if any
non-commercially sensitive information can be separated and released.
Having reviewed your appeal we believe that we have identified some
information that could be released but we need to consult the relevant
third party. This will take some time and I am therefore writing to let
you know that we plan to let you have a response by the 21st June.

 

In addition to this we believe your original request was quite broad. If
you were willing to narrow it down to information on a specific aspect of
the bid for a rail line between Consett and Newcastle rather than all the
information held by the department in relation to the bid this may help us
identify further specific information that’s in scope and isn’t
commercially sensitive so could potentially be released subject to any
third party views.

 

If, having had the results of the above, you remain dissatisfied we will
of course arrange for an independent internal review to be completed but
before we reach that stage we want to work with you so you can obtain the
information you are seeking.

 

Kind regards,

Ben

 

[1][IMG]          Ben Newsham 
Policy and Communications Adviser, Restoring Your
Railway, Rail Infrastructure Central 

Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR  

       
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

show quoted sections

Ben Newsham, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Temple,

 

Please find attached the Department’s response to your Freedom of
Information request regarding information in connection with securing and
implementing a feasibility study of the restoration of the railway link
between Consett and the conurbation(s) close to the River Tyne.

 

Kind regards,

Ben Newsham

 

[1][IMG]          Ben Newsham 
Policy and Communications Adviser, Restoring Your
Railway, Rail Infrastructure Central 

Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR  

      
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

show quoted sections

Dear Department for Transport,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Transport's handling of my FOI request 'Reconnecting Railways - returning services to Consett in the North East'.

You have failed to respond appropriately to my earlier request that you internally review the blanket exemption of all documents held on the grounds of commercial sensivity, and that you consider releasing them with redaction of the commercially sensitive elements.

Instead you replied that you had "further information" that you would consider for release. The clear implication of that is that it was different information from that which you had declined to release and I awaited your view on that "further information". You have determined that that documention is entirely exempt under section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

With respect to your suggestion that I consider "narrowing my request", I did not take any action because you had already written to say that you would not release any documents. Narrowing the request would have no effect, therefore.

I now request that you carry out the internal review I requested in my email of May 14th and you acknowledged on May 17th. I accept that you will exclude the "further information" exempted under section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act and therefore do not ask that it is included in your internal review.

If you consider that your leter of June 30th is the result of the internal review I requested on May 14th please confirm that to me in order that I can expedite an appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Yours faithfully,
Owen Temple

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

1 Attachment

 

Dear Mr Temple,

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for an internal review
of FOI response F0019714. We aim to respond on or before the 30^th July
2021.

 

Regards,

 

Ivan Pocock

 

[1][IMG]          Ivan Pocock 
Information Rights Adviser, Information Rights (Data
Protection and FOI) Team, Governance Division, Group
Assurance and Digital Directorate 

3rd Floor, One Priory Square, Hastings, TN34 1EA  
       
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

show quoted sections

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Temple

 

Further to your email dated 3 July 2021.

 

Please accept my apologies, but I’m afraid that we require more time to
conduct the internal review you requested. We therefore need to extend our
time to respond by a further 20 working days to 27 August 2021. I do hope
we are able to respond before this date and will keep you informed if we
are unable to do so.

 

Once again, I am very sorry for the delay in responding.

 

Kind regards

 

Deepak Patel

 

 

[1][IMG]          Deepak Patel 
Information Rights Adviser, Information Rights Team,
Governance Division 

, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR         
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Temple,

 

With sincere apologies for the delay, please find attached our response to
your request for internal review.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jack Gibson

 

Jack Gibson  | Senior Information Rights Adviser, Information Rights Team,
Governance Division, Department for Transport
LG.5 |

From: FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT <[email address]>
Sent: 30 July 2021 11:10
To: [FOI #750026 email]
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Reconnecting
Railways - returning services to Consett in the North East

 

Dear Mr Temple

 

Further to your email dated 3 July 2021.

 

Please accept my apologies, but I’m afraid that we require more time to
conduct the internal review you requested. We therefore need to extend our
time to respond by a further 20 working days to 27 August 2021. I do hope
we are able to respond before this date and will keep you informed if we
are unable to do so.

 

Once again, I am very sorry for the delay in responding.

 

Kind regards

 

Deepak Patel

 

 

[1][IMG]          Deepak Patel 
Information Rights Adviser, Information Rights Team,
Governance Division 

, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR         
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

 

show quoted sections