Responses to Tom Watson's questionnaire from groups based at The Public

The request was successful.

Dear Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council,

I would like to see the responses to the 2013 questionnaire distributed by Tom Watson to the businesses and community groups at The Public, based on the contact list provided by its then managing director Linda Saunders.

As this is my second request for this information, will you please deal with it more carefully that my first request 1-671778179/ILO, which produced the following reply:

'The Council is not aware of any report compiled by Tom Watson with information relating to companies based at The Public and as a consequence does not hold this information.'

According to a letter sent to me by Tom Watson dated 1st July 2014 'All consultation responses were forwarded in hard copy to Sandwell Council. The responses yielded, in my personal view, rich data and information pertaining to the organisations that used The Public.'

On request I am happy to provide you with a full copy of this letter. My own MP Adrian Bailey also has a copy.

May I request that you forward (in whatever format) the data and information that Tom Watson is referring to.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Fellows

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Thank you for contacting Sandwell Council.

Your request has been passed to the relevant service area, who will contact you shortly.

Please quote your reference number INT1-681226468 on all future correspondence.

Regards

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer Services
Transform Sandwell

www.sandwell.gov.uk

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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Thank you for your enquiry.

I can advise you that your enquiry has been logged with ref 1-681365778.

Please quote your reference number in all future correspondence.

Regards,

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer Services

Email: ‘[Sandwell Council request email]’

Web: www.sandwell.gov.uk

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Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Please find attached a letter from Sandwell Council in response to your recent contact.

This letter will advise you of the timescales for response and will provide our contact details should you need to get in touch.

If you cannot open the attachment please download the FREE adobe reader that can be found at www.adobe.com
Please do not reply to this e-mail but instead use the contact details found in the letter.

Dear Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council,

Re my Freedom of Information request ref 1-681365778.

According to Teresa Armstrong, your Acting Services Insight Team Manager, I should have received a response to this request by the 3rd September 2014. According to the WhatDoTheyKnow website, legally I should have received one by the 2nd September.

Either way, it is now the 4th September. May I therefore remind you of my request – received by the council on the 4th August - to forward (in whatever format) the data and information that Tom Watson refers to in his letter to me and insists he has sent as hard copy to the council.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Fellows

Dear Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council,

May I again remind the council of my Freedom of Information request 1-681365778.

Legally, the council was required to provide a response by the 2nd September. In August I was assured by Teresa Armstrong that the council would respond by 3rd September and that my request had been passed on to a Responding Officer.

On the 4th September I politely reminded the council in writing that the response was delayed. I've allowed the council another week of working days and it is now the 15th September. I've still not received the information requested or any further communication from the council regarding this matter.

The request remains as spelled out in my earlier correspondence. May I see the material that Tom Watson assures me he has sent the council in hard copy. As previously stipulated, I'd be happy to see it in any format.

This is not, I would have thought, a complicated request. Can somebody deal with it please?

Yours faithfully,

Robert Fellows

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Thank you for contacting Sandwell Council.

Your request has been passed to the relevant service area, who will contact you shortly.

Please quote your reference number INT1-685537401 on all future correspondence.

Regards

Corporate Contact Centre
Customer Services
Transform Sandwell

www.sandwell.gov.uk

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Anouk Wendling, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

2 Attachments

This information has been marked as: IL1: PROTECT

Dear Mr Fellows,

 

Regarding the request you submitted to the Council (4th August 2014) in
regard to the reports passed from Tom Watson MP to Councillor Darren
Cooper concerning consultation, carried out by Tom Watson MP, and not at
the behest of the Council, on the decision facing the future of the
Public.

 

Please note that the reports were passed from one political appointee to
another and as such, we do not believe that the reports are subject to the
Freedom of Information Act.  However, at the request of the Leader of the
Council, and consideration that it is in the public interest to disclose,
please find attached both reports.  Certain information within both
reports have been redacted where it is considered to consist of personal
information (names, email addresses, company names as the responses would
have an expectation of confidentiality).  We do acknowledge however that
from the information disclosed to you may be able to identity which firms
said what, we would not expect any of the information disclosed to be used
in a manner that could be viewed by the relevant company as harassment.

 

Section 40(2) provides for an absolute exemption from disclosure when the
information requested consists of personal information and its disclosure
would infringe the principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998.

Some of the information redacted is considered as personal data and,
according to the Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO) Guidance
regarding Section 40(2), disclosure of such information must:

1.      not infringe the first data protection principle, i.e. the
processing / the disclosure must be fair and lawful.

The ICO advise that fairness be assessed according to the level of
confidentiality expected by the data subject regarding their opinion
pertaining to the disposal of The Public.

In this case, the individuals surveyed would not have reasonably expected
the comments they made to their MP to be published and disclosure of the
information would seem unfair. 

2.      not be unwarranted by prejudice to the data subject.

In this case, the Council believes that disclosure of the information
could infringe on the data subjects privacy by disclosing their opinion on
a much debated local issue "to the world".

 

3.      In assessing fairness, the ICO finally advises to balance out the
prejudice of disclosure to the data subject and the public’s legitimate
interests in disclosure.

The Council does understand the need for accountability and transparency
in public decision-making. Nevertheless, we believe that it is not
necessary to disclose the  names of the individuals surveyed to achieve
that purpose, and that the potential prejudice to the data subject's
privacy outweighs the public's legitimate in disclosure. Public scrutiny
can be achieved by the disclosure of redacted information, which I have
attached for your perusal.

 

Please accept my apology for the delay in responding to you. If you are
dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask
for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted
within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your request,
and should be addressed to:

 

Information Management Unit

Sandwell Council House

Freeth Street

Oldbury

West Midlands

B69 3DE

 

Email – [1][Sandwell Council request email] 

 

Please note that any additional questions to your original request will
not be answered at internal review stage and should be presented in a
separate, new Freedom of Information request.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of an internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

Regards,

 

Stuart Taylor

Corporate Information Governance Manager

Legal and Governance

 

[2]sandwell_mbc

Sandwell Council...working for you

 

Sandwell Council

Oldbury

West Midlands

B69 3DE

W: [3]www.sandwell.gov.uk

 

T: 0121 569 3715

E: [4][email address]

 

 

 

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