Underpinning legislation not otherwise available

Nick Brown made this Environmental Information Regulations request to Conservators of the River Cam
This authority is not subject to FOI law, so is not legally obliged to respond (details).
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Conservators of the River Cam.

Dear Sir

Please provide the following documents:

1 River Cam Navigation Act 1985
2 River Cam Bye-laws
3 River Cam Navigation Act 1851
4 River Cam Act 1702

For the avoidance of doubt this is a requisition under the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours faithfully
Nick Brown

Conservators of the River Cam

I am currently on leave, returning on Wednesday 10 September.

 

For urgent enquiries please call the office on 01223 863785, alternatively
I will respond to your email upon my return.

 

 

 

Conservators of the River Cam

Hello Nick,

Thanks for your request. Our status is such that we do not fall under the Freedom of Information Act so I won't be providing copies of the Acts you requested.

However, I would say that all the acts are freely available online to download. For example the Conservancy Act of 1922 is here:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...

If you have a specific question you would like to discuss though, please do come back to me.

Kind regards
Jed

Jed Ramsay MCIWEM  C.WEM  
River Manager
Conservators of the River Cam
Clayhithe Office, Waterbeach
Cambridge, CB25 9JB
T: 01223 863785
M: 0770 6262 457
W: camconservancy.org
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Dear Mr Ramsay

I note that you have refused my requisition of information made to the Conservators of the River Cam (the "Conservators") user the Freedom of Information Act ("FoIA"). I note that the Conservators has refused this requisition claiming that the Conservators is not covered by the FoIA. I note that the Conservators has provided no further explanation including failing to provide a statutory basis for its argument for making this claim.

I observe that the Conservators holds the power to make bye-laws and has indeed made bye-laws. A byelaw offence is a criminal offence. Therefore the Conservators holds the powers of a public body.

I note that the Conservators is identified as the statutory Navigation Authority for the section of the river Cam that passes through Cambridge. An Authority is a public body for the purposes of Item 1 of Schedule 1 of FoIA..

I note that in the document published by the Association of Inland Navigation Authorities ("AINA") entitled "Empowered or hindered? An assessment of the effectiveness of existing legal powers in enabling navigation authorities to achieve their full potential" dated 22nd September 2009 the Conservators is identified as a Navigation Authority. I note that in section 3.2 of that document it is clarified that this information appears in the documents a result of a questionnaire sent by AINA to the Conservators, completed by the Conservators and returned to AINA. Therefore of its own admission the Conservators is a Navigation Authority with public powers including the power to make new legislation.

Therefore without any question the Conservators is a public body for the purposes of FoIA.

It follows therefore that for the Conservators to decline to respond to a FoI requisition including failing to provide a statement compliant with the FoIA justifying a refusal constitutes a non-compliance on the part of the Conservators.

Consequently I seek an internal review of the decision of the Conservators to refuse this requisition. I believe that the Conservators have 40 days to perform this review.

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

Yours sincerely
Nick Brown

Conservators of the River Cam

Dear Nick,

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I note that you have not addressed any of the questions I asked in my previous reply to you - such as is there a specific issue you would like to discuss with me or are you just keen on me spending my organisation's time on trying to track down copies of ancient legislation for you? Legislation which is of course, all of which is within the public domain already and freely available.

In terms of whether we are subject to FoI - under schedule 1 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000...) we are not listed at any point and this is why we believe we are not subject to its requirements. I'd be interested if you can point me in the direction of the text where it says that all public bodies that make byelaws are subject to FoI Act? And in fact on this point - we do not make byelaws - it is Defra that would do this for us, we are not able ourselves to pass legislation. If I'm wrong on this point and we can pass our own byelaws that would make my life a whole of a lot easier, as our byelaws are in need of modernising in many senses.

I'll sign off by repeating my earlier question to you - I like to consider myself open and willing to engage with our customers - if there is something specific you'd like to discuss with me or even meet to discuss, I am more than happy to do so. Or are you just looking to collect copies of legislation?

Kind regards,

Jed

Jed Ramsay MCIWEM  C.WEM  
River Manager
Conservators of the River Cam
Clayhithe Office, Waterbeach
Cambridge, CB25 9JB
T: 01223 863785
M: 0770 6262 457
W: camconservancy.org
Follow us on Twitter or Facebook

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Owen Boswarva left an annotation ()

I'm not sure why this information request was refused. The legislation requested by Mr Brown is not readily accessible; the link provided by Mr Ramsay is to a different statute.

Mr Brown erred in specifying the Freedom of Information Act in his request. However the Conservators should have responded under the provisions of the Environmental Information Regulations. Mr Ramsay is correct that the Conservators are not subject to FOI, but they are subject to EIR. The information requested by Mr Brown clearly falls within the scope of EIR.