FOI Request - Review of Discretionary Deferral Funding Stats for 2020-2021

Request 101002606312

Re: FOI 101002580650

I am writing to request an internal review of Moray Council's handling of my FOI request 'Scottish LAs Discretionary Deferral Funding Stats for 2020-2021'. 

Thank you for your partial response to my FoI request however, I do not understand why Moray Council was able to respond to all questions in the very similar FoI request I submitted last year on 18/7/19 yet has refused to do so this year. 

Response 28-10-2020

Following your request for a review of our response to the FOI you submitted, ‘Discretionary Deferral Funding Stats for 2020-2021’ - 101002580650 , a review meeting was held remotely on 27th October 2020. In attendance were the Records and Heritage Manager, Senior Solicitor, Senior Project Manager (ELC) and Information Co-ordinator.

The meeting discussed why similar information that was provided last year under FOI was refused under section 12 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 ‘excessive cost’ for your recent request. The withheld information is routinely collated on an annual basis from 72 ELC providers in the area and when last year’s request (reference 101002231646) was responded to it had already been gathered and processed into a central database. At the point in time that your recent request was responded to, that background work had not been performed yet. The delay to the routine collation was due to staffing capacity being significantly reduced compared to last year as a result of budget cuts and restructuring, this was exacerbated by the COVID-19 restrictions impacting on access to offices and IT equipment. In order to respond to your request within the timescale would have required extra work to collate all of the information from the ELC providers, this extra work had not been required for your previous FOI last year. This extra work would have cost the Council in excess of £600 and so the Council upholds its original decision.

However, since your request was responded to and this review meeting held, the background work in collating these figures has naturally taken place. Therefore we are now able to respond to your original request. Please find the updated response below.

1. 54

2. a) 35
b) 19
c) The numbers are between 0 and 5 and so disclosure risks identifying individuals. This information is therefore exempt under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, personal information.

3. a) 35
b) 19
c) The numbers are between 0 and 5 and so disclosure risks identifying individuals. This information is therefore exempt under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, personal information.

4. 26

5a) Nil.

5b) N/A

6. Nil

7. a) and b) The numbers are between 0 and 5 and so disclosure risks identifying individuals. This information is therefore exempt under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, personal information.

8. We will be reviewing our current policy before the end of this calendar year in light of the legislative change at a Scottish Government level.

9. N/A

10. The numbers are between 0 and 5 and so disclosure risks identifying individuals. This information is therefore exempt under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, personal information.