Transcript/Recording of the Badman press conference
Dear Sir or Madam,
Graham Badman attended a press conference in central London on Thursday 11 June 2009 to release the Badman Review of Elective Home Education.
Please send me:
A. A transcript or recording in any form of the press conference.
B. Any details you have about what was said at the press conference, including notes made by people present.
Many thanks.
Yours faithfully,
C. Blades
Dear C Blades
Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2009/0067238.
Thank you.
Central Allocation Team
Public Communications Team
Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk
Dear Sir or Madam,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Children, Schools and Families handling of my FOI request 'Transcript/Recording of the Badman press conference'.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/tr...
May I point out that the Children Schools and Families Select Committee is holding a short inquiry into the review. The deadline for submissions is 22 September 2009. The information I am requesting forms part of my submission to that committee.
Yours faithfully,
C. Blades
Dear C Blades
Thank you for your recent email. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information, the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number
2009/0075327.
Thank you.
Central Allocation Team
Public Communications Team
Tel: 0870 0002288
www.dcsf.gov.uk
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your recent email, dated 29 August, requesting an internal
review of previous correspondence. Could you please advise the case
reference number that would have been assigned to the specific
correspondence in question, in order that we may consider an internal
review of that case.
Yours sincerely,
Josephine Bell
Independent Schools Partnerships and Strategy Team
[email address]
[1]www.dcsf.gov.uk
Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0075327.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/
Dear Sir or Madam,
Your reply on 27/07/09 to my first letter was given the reference number 2009/0067238.
Your reply on 01/09/09 to my request for an internal review was given the reference number 2009/0075327.
Yours faithfully,
C. Blades
Dear Ms Blades,
I refer to your request for information, which was received on 27 July.
Before answering your request I should like to apologise for the delay in
replying. The Department is aware that it has missed the statutory
deadline for reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act. I
very much regret this - the Department should meet its obligations under
the Act. While I appreciate that it is in no way a justification I should
like to explain that the Department makes every effort to meet deadlines,
but the delay in responding in this case has been due to the unusual
volume of requests the Department has received in recent months.
The Information Commissioner has been informed of the situation.
You requested -
Graham Badman attended a press conference in central London on
Thursday 11 June 2009 to release the Badman Review of Elective Home
Education.
Please send me:
A. A transcript or recording in any form of the press conference.
B. Any details you have about what was said at the press
conference, including notes made by people present.
I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The information held by the Department is attached. The Department does
not hold a recording of the press conference. The only notes held are the
informal manuscript notes attached.
The information supplied to you is protected by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. Any documents produced by government officials will be
covered by Crown Copyright. You are free to use the information for your
own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for
the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial
publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder and is
regulated by the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005. You
can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright at:
Office of Public Sector Information
Information Policy Team
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU
Email: [1][email address]
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner's Office.
Yours sincerely,
Josephine Bell
Independent Schools Partnerships and Strategy Team
[email address]
[2]www.dcsf.gov.uk
Your correspondence has been allocated the reference number 2009/0067238.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/
Ruth A Jump left an annotation ()
"Thank you for releasing these documents. Now please tell us what they say."
M Stafford left an annotation ()
Yes please translate the shorthand and type out the writing so that this information is truly released.
Dear Ms Blades
I refer to your request for internal review which was received on 1
September 2009.
Before informing you of the outcome of the internal review I should like
to apologise for the delay in replying. The Department is aware that there
has been a very considerable delay. I much regret this. While I appreciate
that it is in no way a justification I should like to explain that the
Department makes every effort to respond quickly to requests for internal
reviews, but the delay in responding in this case has been due to the
unusual volume of requests the Department has received in recent months.
On 27 July 2009 you made the following request:-
Graham Badman attended a press conference in central London on
Thursday 11 June 2009 to release the Badman Review of Elective Home
Education.
Please send me:
A. A transcript or recording in any form of the press conference.
B. Any details you have about what was said at the press
conference, including notes made by people present.
We replied on 18 September 2009, attaching the only information held by
the Department.
The Department has now completed its internal review process and has
carried out a thorough review of the case, chaired by a senior officer who
was not involved with the original request.
The panel noted that your request for internal review was received in the
Department before you had received our final reply. On that basis, it was
decided that the internal review could only consider the issue of the
Department missing its statutory deadline for reply. The panel discussed
the following points/issues -
. The panel discussed that you have requested internal reviews on
three other cases. As with this case, the internal review requests were
received in the Department before you had received our final reply. It
was agreed that the other cases be considered on the same basis as this
case.
. The panel noted that in all cases we have apologised for the
delay in replying, accepted that the delays should not have happened and
explained the complaints procedure.
. The panel agreed that it would be appropriate for the Department
to again acknowledge that a breach of the Act had taken place and to
apologise for that fact, but again to point out that the delays were
unavoidable.
. The panel agreed that four separate responses should be sent to
you.
It was agreed therefore that a letter be sent to you, acknowledging the
considerable delays you have experienced. Please see the letter attached
at Annex A.
If you are unhappy with this decision, you have the right to appeal
directly to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can
be contacted at:
The Case Reception Unit
Customer Service Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Further information about the Information Commissioner's complaints
procedure can be found on the Information Commissioner's Office website:
[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
Yours sincerely
Penny Jones
Deputy Director
Independent Education and Schools Governance Division
Annex A
Dear Ms Blades
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 27 July
2009. Our reply was issued on 18 September 2009 and I would like to
apologise for the delay in replying.
The Department is aware that it has missed the statutory deadline for
reply and is in breach of its obligations under the Act. I can assure you
that the Department does take the matter of delays very seriously and is
always concerned about delays in responding to individual requesters,
recognising the inconvenience and frustration which this may cause.
As we have previously explained, during this period high volumes of work
and unexpected long-term illness meant that I was unable to allocate
additional staffing to this area of work. It was decided that I would
chair weekly Freedom of Information request meetings, so that new cases
would be dealt with in a timely manner and the backlog of old cases
addressed.
Although the weekly meetings and the availability of additional staffing
improved the situation, it was still extremely difficult to respond to all
requests within the legal timeframe and delays were unavoidable.
The Department has a finite amount of resources, all of which is publicly
funded, and therefore we have to ensure resources are allocated in a way
that is even-handed across all areas of business.
Yours sincerely
Penny Jones
Deputy Director
Independent Education and Schools Governance Division
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
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L Thorn left an annotation ()
a) can't read the writing, and I don't understand shorthand
b) who was this written by? Did Graham Badman write this, did a DCSF employee sit by and write what he said? What is a plan of what he might say, and did other things come to him in the spur of the moment (see below)?
c) Undated. When was it written?
d) if this is a transcript, why doesn't it include the important 'twice as likely to be known' bit? Several papers wrote headlines and coverage based upon that being said, specifically, at the press conference, they didn't all make it up, or did they?