FOI Request - Review of Education Provision in Buckie

Request 101002835882

Review of case 101002811761: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_137153.html

Thank you for providing the response in the below email on 24th June 2021 (Reference: 10100281176) to the FOI request submitted on 31st May 2021.

Having reviewed the Council’s response, we note that there are several matters set out within our original FOI Request that we do not believe have been fully addressed within your response.

As allowed under Section 20 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we therefore request the Council reviews its response and provides the outstanding information set out below.

The matters that we seek further clarity or missing information on are set out as follows:

Question 2)
Existing floor plans, site plans and accommodation schedules were requested for Cluny and Buckie Primary Schools. Only site plans have been provided, with the response stating that no other information is available. The wording of the response is clear, however, we would ask that the Council review whether or not additional information is available as this is standard information which a council would be expected to hold for the purpose of managing its school estate.

Question 6)
The Question stated …Provide an explanation and any supporting information to clarify how the costs in the table on page 13 of the Supplementary Guidance have been calculated. The response simply states that …All of the costs set out on page 13 of the Supplementary Guidance are based on recent school projects that were delivered by Moray Council. It is not considered that a sufficient response to this question has been provided. As well as an explanation, evidence supporting this was requested in the form of supporting information. There is no information contained within the Supplementary Guidance on the examples of …recent school projects… which have been used to derive these costs. Please provide a clear explanation and the supporting information which underpins these costs, as requested.

Questions 7, 8 and 9
Questions 7, 8 and 9 posed specific questions on three different matters. The response answers these three questions together but does not address the specific information requested. Specifically, regarding Questions 7 and 8 there is no information provided on the scale, cost or timescales of infrastructure actions. Please provide a response to the specific matters requested within each question. If the Council does not hold the information or is unable to answer because no work has been undertaken at the time of this request, the response should state as such.

Response 02-08-21

Following your request for a review of our response to the FOI you submitted, Education Provision in Buckie - 10100281176 , a review meeting was held remotely on 21st July 2021. In attendance were the Acting Records and Heritage Manager, Senior Infrastructure Growth/Obligations Officer and Relief Information Co-ordinator, in consultation with the Senior Solicitor.

For Question 2, you asked the Council to ‘review whether or not additional information is available’. It was determined that no existing floor plans and accommodation schedules are held. We therefore uphold our initial response that this information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – Information Not Held.

It was decided on review that the responses we initially provided for Questions 3, 4 and 5 constituted information that had been created for the purposes of responding to your FOI request. Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 states that authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request. On review, it was therefore decided that our amended response to Questions 3, 4 and 5 is that the information is exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – Information Not Held. It was decided that the explanations provided within our initial response for these questions would remain as part of our amended response under the Council’s duty to be helpful.  

It was agreed on review that our response to Question 6 did not provide a full enough explanation, and we did not provide supporting documentation. It was agreed that we can provide the information contained within the table below as a further explanation on the calculations used to formulate the costs presented in the Supplementary Guidance. Please also see the links below to the committee reports on Linkwood Primary School and Elgin High School costs, which the Developer Obligations figures are based on.

Link to Linkwood Primary School report: https://moray.cmis.uk.com/moray/CouncilandGovernance/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/444/Committee/2/Default.aspx

Link to Elgin High report: http://www.moray.gov.uk/minutes/data/MC20160203/Item%2011%20-%20Elgin%20High%20School%20Replacement%20Project%20v3-R.pdf

For questions 7, 8 and 9, we initially provided a general response which detailed the planning process currently underway. We provided this general response as no recorded information is held which answers your specific questions. For clarity, we can confirm that because no decisions have been made in relation to these areas, in answer to questions 7a – e, 8a – e and 9, no recorded information is held – this information is therefore exempt under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – Information Not Held.  

For the purpose of being helpful, we can advise that the decisions that have been made to date by the Council (namely the decision to build a new primary school and extension to Buckie High) are set out in the Developer Obligations Supplementary Guidance Report which is available at this link:
https://moray.cmis.uk.com/moray/CouncilandGovernance/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/1605/Committee/35/Default.aspx