FOI Request - Review Of Emergency Operations Centre and Underground Facilities
Request 101002923798
[Original case reference: 101002906112: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_138832.html]
I am writing to request an internal review of Moray Council's handling of my FOI request 'Emergency Operations Centre and Underground Facilities'.
You have decided to withhold public information from me in respect of my request and I encourage you to provide it.
I note that in the same request made to your neighbouring local authority, Highland Council, no such exemption was applied and a full response to my query was made. Therefore you are withholding information that has legitimately been made available elsewhere.
A copy of Highland Council’s response is noted below. I would appreciate you considering this as a model for your answer. If you consider that the Highland Council has acted inappropriately, please advise me and I will inform them and the Information Commissioner of such.
HC response:
“In most instances The Highland Council would co-ordinate its emergency operations remotely, i.e. via teleconference or MS Teams. This arrangement allows for a fast, efficient and agile response and has proved effective before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. If a physical location is required, this would be selected based on the locus of the incident, capacity, and other relevant factors. No site is maintained in a constant state of readiness specifically for co-ordination of emergency operations.”
Response 07-12-2021
Following your request for review of our response to your Freedom of Information Request, Emergency Operations Centre and Underground Facilities (101002906112), a review meeting was held remotely on 23rd November 2021. In attendance were the Acting Records and Heritage Manager, and Head of Direct Services, in consultation with the Senior Solicitor.
In your request for review you stated your belief that the information that the Council had decided to withhold from its response should be public information, noting that another local authority had disclosed the requested information in a separate request made to them. While the responses of other local authorities are not considered when responding to Freedom of Information requests (as different local authorities hold different information and operate under different circumstances, meaning different answers to the same question can be expected) the decision to withhold the requested information was reviewed regardless. After further discussion of the potential safety concerns involved that disclosing the information may lead to it was determined that the releasing the requested information would not sufficiently prejudice the conduct of public affairs to justify the exemption. Please find our revised answer below:
“Moray Council would co-ordinate any emergency operations remotely, i.e. via teleconference or MS Teams. This arrangement allows for a fast, efficient and agile response and has proved effective before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. If a physical location is required, this would be selected based on the locus of the incident, capacity, and other relevant factors. No site is maintained in a constant state of readiness specifically for co-ordination of emergency operations however there is capacity within the HQ Campus for the provision of setting up an Emergency Response Centre. Moray Council do not have any underground facilities for these purposes.”
Additionally, it was noted during the meeting that when the public interest test is applied and found to be in favour of exemption a fuller explanation should be given as to why this decision was made. We apologise that this wasn’t provided in our original response.