universal free school meals VFM assesment

The request was refused by Department for Education.

ref AJJFoI1 VFM

Dear Department for Education,

During the education select committee session on 12th march 2014, David Laws said in answer to a question on the value for money offered by the universal free school meals policy “We assessed this very carefully”

I would like to ensure that this is a true reflection of the process.

Please provide the following information/details:

I would like to see the impact assessments/cost benefit analysis done on the UIFSM policy by both the Treasury and the DfE. I understand this may change as new data comes in, so i would like to see the original and latest iteration of the assessments.

I would like to see a list of all the alternatives being considered and compared, along with the monetary figures allocated and the basis and formulas used in calculating and allocating those figures.

Yours faithfully,
Andrew Jolley

Department for Education

Dear Mr Jolley

Thank you for your recent enquiry. 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 reference number 2014/0040409.

Thank you

Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288

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Department for Education

Dear Mr Jolley,
Thank you for your four requests for information, which were all received
by the Department on 30 May 2014.   

You requested the following information:

1.    “Original details and latest iteration of any impact
assessments/cost benefit analysis done on UIFSM policy by both the
Treasury and the DfE. Details required: list of all alternatives being
considered and compared, along with the monetary figures allocated and the
basis and formulas used in calculating and allocating the figures”.

2.    “Information on which schools, caterers and local authorities were
consulted on the issue of revenue funding for UIFSM. Who decided on the
list of people to be consulted along with the criteria they used to assess
their expertise. The methodology and price range each organisation
suggested, along with any correspondence between parties relating to this
consultation”.

3.    “Details of any models and projections on the ongoing costs for
schools impacted by the UIFSM policy along with any briefing notes shown
to the Minister. How many schools are currently projected to have costs
above and beyond the £2:30 funding provided. How the calculations were
done and details of who provided the information used”.

4.    “If David Laws or his officials met or consulted on the
practicalities of the UIFSM policy, with anyone who may be reasonably
considered an interested party (i.e. SFP, LACA, Jamie Oliver, schools, LAs
etc) in the 2 month period between the launch of the school food plan on
the 12 July and the policy announcement on 17 September 2013. Including
any details of any virtual meetings or telephone conversations, who
attended, on what dates and who initiated the meetings”.

I have dealt with your requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I confirm that the Department holds information within scope of the
requests.  The Department estimates that the cost of complying with your
requests would exceed the cost threshold applicable to central Government.
This is £600 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½
working days locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Regulation 5 of the FOI act provides that where two or more requests for
information are made to a public authority by one person, the estimated
cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the total
costs of complying with all of them where the two or more requests relate
to any extent to the same or similar information, and those requests are
received within any period of 60 consecutive working days.

The Department is not therefore obliged to comply with any of your
requests and under section 12 of the Act will not be processing them
further.

If you were to make a new request for a narrower category of information
or limit the scope of your request, the Department may be able to comply
with your request within the cost limit.  However, I cannot guarantee that
this will be the case. 

It may help if I outline some possible ways of narrowing your request. You
might want to consider doing one or more of the following:

o Send a single request which covers one of the four requests above;
o Reduce the level of detail requested under each of your requests;
o Request information that was created within a specific period of time
e.g. a two week period;
o Specify particular terms or combinations of terms to be searched for.

I should point out that apart from narrowing your four existing requests,
if the Department receives from you further requests which relate in any
extent to the same or similar information within 60 days of at least one
of those requests, your further requests will be aggregated with the
earlier requests for cost threshold purposes.

Regulation 5 also makes provision for the same aggregation arrangements to
apply in circumstances where different persons appear to the public
authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign.

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,

Rachida Takal
Participation Division
[email address]
[1]www.gov.uk/dfe

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References

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