The Hastings Trust

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Hastings Borough Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Hastings Borough Council,

What is this council's and councillor's involvement with The Hastings Trust? Please provide confirmation on which dates did this council review and discuss concerns about The Hastings Trust?

.............................
Once you have confirmed those meetings; could all information held on file at those meetings be provided in respect of UK data laws.

Examples of such might include:

1. Preparatory notes. ( the why etc)

2. Minutes.

3. Any information supplied to its attendees. ( anything from informative invite to PowerPoint to notes)

4 Attendees - senior grades.

5. Any other mention of this meeting in PHSO files ( subsequent file information / feedback)

NB In respect of Section16 Reg 9 please provide 'help and advice' on what data is available.

Yours faithfully,

Fiona Watts

Information Officer, Hastings Borough Council

Thank you for contacting us.
 
We aim to respond to requests for information within 20 working days, in
accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. 
 
If your request is for personal information your request will be dealt
with according to the requirements of the Data Protection Act and the
timescale for response may be extended to 40 days.
 
The Freedom of Information area on our website, [1]www.hastings.gov.uk,
can be accessed via a 'Quick Hit' direct link from the site's home page
and contains advice about how to make a request for information.
 
Information about all our services, including contact details, location,
and links to information published by services on the site, is available
in the A to Z of Services area which can also be accessed via a 'Quick
Hit' direct link from the site's home page.
 
 
Information Officer
Hastings Borough Council
01424 451066
[2]www.hastings.gov.uk
 
 
 
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______________________________________________________________________
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Dear Information Officer,

My apologies, please ignore the following aspects of my request;

3. Any information supplied to its attendees. ( anything from informative invite to PowerPoint to notes)
4 Attendees - senior grades.
5. Any other mention of this meeting in PHSO files ( subsequent file information / feedback)
NB In respect of Section16 Reg 9 please provide 'help and advice' on what data is available.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Yours sincerely,

Fiona Watts

Information Officer, Hastings Borough Council

Thank you for contacting us.
 
We aim to respond to requests for information within 20 working days, in
accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. 
 
If your request is for personal information your request will be dealt
with according to the requirements of the Data Protection Act and the
timescale for response may be extended to 40 days.
 
The Freedom of Information area on our website, [1]www.hastings.gov.uk,
can be accessed via a 'Quick Hit' direct link from the site's home page
and contains advice about how to make a request for information.
 
Information about all our services, including contact details, location,
and links to information published by services on the site, is available
in the A to Z of Services area which can also be accessed via a 'Quick
Hit' direct link from the site's home page.
 
 
Information Officer
Hastings Borough Council
01424 451066
[2]www.hastings.gov.uk
 
 
 
______________________________________________________________________
CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLAIMER NOTICE

This message and any attachments are confidential and may be legally
privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the
intended recipient please telephone or email the sender and delete
this message and any attachments from your system. If you are not the
intended recipient you must not copy this message and attachments, or
disclose the contents to any other person.

Although Hastings Borough Council has taken steps to ensure that this
message and any attachments are virus free, we can take no
responsibility if a virus is actually present. We advise you to carry
out your own virus check.

For further information about Hastings Borough Council please see our
website at http://www.hastings.gov.uk or refer to any Hastings Borough
Council office.
______________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet
delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further
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Information Officer, Hastings Borough Council

Dear Ms Watts,
 
I refer to your recent request for information from this Authority.  Our
answer(s) to your questions are below.
 
I trust we have interpreted your request correctly, and this is the
information you required.
 
You have a right to request an internal review if you are not happy with
any aspect of the way we have handled your
request for information.  Please contact me in writing with your request
for an internal review stating your reason why. I will then arrange
for your application for review to be dealt with. If you are then still
unhappy you may
complain to the Information Commissioner who will decide whether the
request has been handled properly.  Please note
that the Information Commissioner cannot generally make a decision unless
our internal review process has first been
exhausted.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at The
Information Commissioners' Officer, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 AF 
 
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Lisa Greathead
Information Officer
Aquila House
Breeds Place
Hastings
TN34 3UY
01424 451066
E Mail: [1][email address]
 
Start of Request for Information
 
What is this council's and councillor's involvement with The Hastings
Trust? Please provide confirmation on which dates did this council review
and discuss concerns about The Hastings Trust?
 
.............................
Once you have confirmed those meetings;  could all information held on
file at those meetings be provided in respect of UK data laws.
 
Examples of such might include:
 
1. Preparatory notes. ( the why etc)
 
2. Minutes.
 
 
This information is held
 
 
The last Councillor to be appointed to the Hastings Trust was Councillor
Tucker in June 2006, the documents for this meeting of Council
Appointments Committee are available to view online at
[2]http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...
 
An entry on the schedule of appointments was included at subsequent
meetings is 2008 (documents available at
[3]http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...)
and 2009 (documents available at
[4]http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...
) but no nominations were received.
 
In July 2014, Council Appointments Committee agreed to the recommend that
the Working Arrangements Group undertake a review of the schedule of
nominations (documents available at
[5]http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDo...)
 
A subsequent review of the schedule of appointments was undertaken by
Working Arrangements Group in 2015 and a revised schedule for appointments
agreed for Council Appointments Committee, which did not include a
nomination to the Hastings Trust.  The documents for the Council
Appointments Committee meeting in July 2015 can be found at
[6]http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDo....
 
 
The Regeneration Department are only aware of one instance when Council
officers reviewed and discussed concerns with Hastings Trust. Records
about specific dates of meetings are no longer held but, based on the
documents that are still held, the meetings/discussions would have taken
place sometime between December 2010 and January 2011. This service area
does not hold any record of any minutes of any meeting that took place,
but there are two relevant documents that are still held however these
documents contain personal data which is exempt under Section 40 (2) of
the Freedom of Information Act, this is an absolute exemption and will not
be provided and the remainder of the documents contain Commercially
Sensitive Information, please see refusal notice below:
 
 
 
NOTICE OF REFUSAL
 
The information requested is commercially sensitive and fall under Section
43 of the Freedom of Information Act – Commercially Sensitive Information
 
Information prejudicing commercial interests – commercial interest
relating to an organisations commercial activity and may include trading
activity procurement and relationships with third parties.
 
The exemption afforded by Section 43 is subject to what is known as the
‘public interest test’.  When applying the test in a particular case a
public authority is deciding whether the public interest is better served
by non-disclosure than by disclosure. 
 
Although the Freedom of Information Act does not define ‘in the public
interest’, there is a presumption under Freedom of Information that
openness is in the public interest.  In applying the public interest test
a public authority will take into account the distinction that has been
often made by courts between things that are in the public interest, and
things that merely interest the public.  Where applicants have not
identified public interest considerations succinctly or accurately, the
public authority has a responsibility under the Act to make their own
assessment of the public interest considerations in the particular case.
 
We have identified the following public interest factors that may be seen
as encouraging the disclosure of information:
 
a)    accountability of public spending
 
We consider these factors to be of limited relevance in relation to the
information in question.
 
Public interest factors seen as encouraging non-disclosure are, generally,
the exemptions themselves.   In consideration of this matter we came to
the following conclusions:
 
a)   ensuring that companies are able to compete for business fairly
      b)   damage to reputation and/or financial interests
    
 
In weighing the factors for and against disclosure we have concluded that
the likely benefit to the applicant and the wider public of disclosure is
outweighed by the likely prejudice caused by such disclosure and that
therefore the public interest is better served by non-disclosure. 
 
For the reasons given above we will not be communicating to you the
information you have requested.
 
End of Request for Information
Please note:
This information is copyrighted to Hastings Borough Council and is
supplied for your personal use only. Except as permitted under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the information supplied may not
be copied, distributed, published, or exploited for commercial purposes or
financial gain without the explicit written consent of Hastings Borough
Council.
We do not give permission for this information to be used for the purposes
of direct marketing.
 
 
 
______________________________________________________________________
CONFIDENTIALITY AND DISCLAIMER NOTICE

This message and any attachments are confidential and may be legally
privileged or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the
intended recipient please telephone or email the sender and delete
this message and any attachments from your system. If you are not the
intended recipient you must not copy this message and attachments, or
disclose the contents to any other person.

Although Hastings Borough Council has taken steps to ensure that this
message and any attachments are virus free, we can take no
responsibility if a virus is actually present. We advise you to carry
out your own virus check.

For further information about Hastings Borough Council please see our
website at http://www.hastings.gov.uk or refer to any Hastings Borough
Council office.
______________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet
delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further
information visit http://www.star.net.uk/stats.asp

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...
3. http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...
4. http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDo...
5. http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDo...
6. http://hastings.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDo...

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