Dear Ms Lewis,

Thank you for West Cheshire College's prompt reply to my previous Freedom of Information Request. Further to your reply, under the Freedom of Information Act, please could you supply the following information within 20 working days:

1) RFID tags - Did West Cheshire College take advice on issues such as data protection, possible impact on civil liberties and privacy, etc, and who did West Cheshire College take advice from. I.e. Department for Education, Information Commissioner’s Office, Children’s Commissioner or any legal advice.

2) RFID tags - Please provide a copy of West Cheshire College’s Privacy Impact Assessment with reference to the introduction of RFID tags as detailed on the Information Commissioner’s Office’s website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/...

3) With regard to your reply to question 2 from my previous Freedom of Information Request, please could West Cheshire College clarify how the college logs an individual pupil’s registration when your reply to questions 2 was, “We are currently trialling the technology for the purposes of automatic registration of students”, then state that, “The technology is not used for tracking of individual students.”

Please could you clarify how individual registration takes place if the technology is not used for tracking individual students?

4) With regard to your reply to question 4 from my previous Freedom of Information Request which asked West Cheshire College to ‘provide any literature given to students informing them of RFID tags use within its college and its campus’ no literature was provided by yourselves. The answer given was “Information relating to the RFID tags and their purpose was covered during College induction/ enrolment.”

In order not to make assumptions as to how West Cheshire College communicated its intent to use RFID tags with students at induction/enrolement, please could you clarify the following points:

i) Would it be accurate to state that West Cheshire College issued no literature to students or parents to inform them of the RFID location tags issued to students?

ii) Would it be accurate to state that the information about RFID tags was given verbally?

iii) Would it be accurate to state that the information about RFID tags is on West Cheshire College’s website?

5) Are any staff using RFID tags?

If you need further clarification, please contact me by email. My preferred format to receive the information is electronically, but I can accept hard copies.

Some parts of this request may be easier to answer than others, and in such case please could you release available data as soon as possible rather than delay the entire request.

If the costs of processing this request exceed the limit in the Act, please advise on what information you are able to supply within the cost limit.

Yours faithfully,

Pippa King

Dear West Cheshire College,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of West Cheshire College's handling of my Freedom of Information request 'To clarify RFID use in West Cheshire College'

Please advise if West Cheshire College will comply under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the subsequent requests: 'Detail and characteristics of RFID use in West Cheshire College' and 'Information gathered and stored by RFID tags at West Cheshire College'

In the Freedom of Information Act 2000 there is no exemption for leaving a "reasonable interval" of time. Please advise which part of the act the request/s are refused under.

The Freedom of Information requests have been asked to determine and confirm what RFID technology West Cheshire College uses, which is currently detailed via reports in RFID industry articles, see below.

Presumably the RFID technology West Cheshire College uses is widely known within the RFID industry, as apart from the below articles, Kevin Francis, West Cheshire College's Building Services Area Manager, spoke for just over half hour on the RFID system at a lecture he presented (as detailed in the third link below) on 5th April 2012 at the RFID Journal Live! conference at Disneyland, Florida, USA.

I would have those specifications reported below, of the RFID system used at the college, clarified and also ask for confirmation that with use of these RFID systems West Cheshire College has conformed to UK Data Protection Act procedure.

I do not require, as yet,”further information regarding our conclusions" at the end of March as per your response to my Freedom of Information request 'To clarify RFID use in West Cheshire College' but I thank you for your offer.

ONLINE ARTICLES:

www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/9476/2 "West Cheshire College tracks whereabouts of Student, Staff" - which as of week commencing 7th January is no longer on the RFID Journal's website. Although a PDF version was available to download from the RFID Journal's website which can be supplied.

Kevin Francis's appearance at RFID Live! Florida, USA. April 2012 http://www.rfidjournalevents.com/pres_li... and http://www.rfidjournal.com/videos/view/805

http://www.zebra.com/us/en/about-zebra/m... - West Chesire First to Use Location Solution Technology

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

Yours faithfully,

Pippa King

Dear Press Office,

Please could you advise by return the outcome of the internal review requested 9th January 2013, over 25 working days ago.

Yours sincerely,

Pippa King

Dear Arrowsmith, Ann-Marie,

Thank you for your reply however I will now be communicating with the Information Commissioner's Office with regards to West Cheshire College's handling of this request.

I shall pass this, your reponse, on to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Yours sincerely,

Pippa King