Birmingham City Council Act 1985

The request was refused by Birmingham City Council.

Dear Birmingham City Council,

Please provide a copy of the Birmingham City Council Act 1985 (1985 c xli), otherwise known as the Birmingham Road Race Act, which authorised the Birmingham super prix.

Yours faithfully,

Mr D Harris

Birmingham City Council

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Information request
Our reference: 769934

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Dear Birmingham City Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Birmingham City Council's handling of my FOI request 'Birmingham City Council Act 1985'.

Firstly, I note that whilst you have stated that you do not have a copy of the act, you say it may be held in the Library of Birmingham Archives. As I understand matters, the Library of Birmingham is part of Birmingham City Council, and so the request I made applies equally to the Library. Therefore, the Council would seem not to have complied with their duty under Section 1(b) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to confirm whether the information is held.

I would also note that the Council relies upon Section 21 FOIA in the case that the information is held by the Library. However, there has been no analysis of whether such a document would be "reasonably accessible" in the terms of the act; for ease of reading I require an electronic copy, rather than having to find and then potentially copy/scan a document in the Library's archives. I would also note that Section 21(3) says that the exemption does not apply if the information is held by the authority in question (here, the Council in the guise of the Library) unless the authority's publication scheme is followed. If you wish to rely on this exemption, please provide a copy of the publication scheme and explain why you believe that it has been followed.

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

I look forward to hearing your response in due course.

Yours faithfully,

D Harris

FOI Mailbox, Birmingham City Council

Dear Mr Harris

 

Further to your email regarding your request for information that is
stored at the Library of Birmingham.

 

Below is the answer that we received from the Library, having reviewed
this we maintain section 21 in this instance, as this document is
“reasonable accessible” to you via the Library service.  

 

“We do indeed retain a copy of the Birmingham City Council Act 1985 (1985
c xli) in our Local Studies Collection administered by Archives &
Collections service on level 4 of the library. The call number reference
for the item is L 05.3 and the title on the spine of the text reads  -
Birmingham City Council Act 1985 – Motor Racing.

 

We unfortunately do not retain a digital copy of the act and we are no
longer able to provide a reprographic service, but the public can access
the document by visiting Archives & Collection service at any point during
the library’s core opening hours of 11 am  - 7 pm Monday & Tuesday and 11
am  - 5 pm Wednesday to Saturday. They are able to make photocopies of the
document at a cost of 10 p per A4 sheet or free of charge if they bring a
camera along with them. The document is in our store area which is only
accessible to staff so it would help matters if they brought along some
form of identification such as their Birmingham library card should they
happen to be in possession of one. It shouldn’t take too long to retrieve
the item on the day of the visit – possibly no more than 10 minutes”.

 

If however, you are not satisfied with the City Council’s decision, you
may apply to the Information Commission for an independent review at the
following address:-

 

The Information Commissioner

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Tele No: 01625 545700

 

[1]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

 

Regards

Corporate Information Governance Team

 

 

 

 

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Dear Birmingham City Council,

Thank you for your response.

However, I would note that you have not dealt with one aspect of my request for a review, namely that Section 21(3) FOIA says that the exemption does not apply if the information is held by the authority in question (here, the Council in the guise of the Library) unless the authority's publication scheme is followed. If you wish to rely on this exemption, please provide a copy of the publication scheme and explain why you believe that it has been followed.

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

Yours faithfully,

D Harris

CIM, Birmingham City Council

Dear Mr Harris

Further to your email, we appreciate the Library of Birmingham is a City
Council owned building, however the document you have requested is
available for public view only at the Library, therefore in the public
domain.

We still feel that section 21 applies and therefore if you wish to take
this appeal further please let us know.

Regards

Corporate Information Governance Team

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