Hou73 Report provided by AVOW to the Welsh Government

24 April 2012

Dear ,
 
Request for Information – reference ATISN 5972

Thank you for your request which I received on 30th March 2012. You asked for:

details and records of any discussions, meetings, correspondence, memos or telephone calls between March 2011 and the present time:

(a) within the Welsh Government and

(b) between the Welsh Government and AVOW or any other bodies
in relation to this Employment Tribunal and/or its findings and/or any action to be taken in consequence of the Tribunal's findings

(c) the report provided by AVOW to the Welsh Government on 14 March 2012

I can confirm that the Welsh Government holds information which falls within the description specified in your request. However, we have estimated that it will cost more than the appropriate limit established in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to consider your request.

The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600. This represents the estimated cost of it taking over 24 hours of working time to determine whether we hold the information, locating the information, retrieving the information and extracting it. Consequently, we have decided not to process your request

At this point I have already taken 23 hours to ascertain what is held and to identify, locate and retrieve information to satisfy the request you have made, and there is still a significant amount of information to sift through.

In tandem I have also asked several other officials to do the same and, as such, I judge it to be the case that the time taken to provide all of the information you have requested will take us well beyond the upper limit of £600.

While I am not able to facilitate your request completely, I am enclosing a copy of the report submitted by AVOW on 14th March as requested, together with a copy of correspondence received from the Charity Commission for England and Wales, which I hope you will find acceptable.

Any reformulated request the Welsh Government receives from you will be treated as a new request.

Your request was considered according to the principles set out in the Assembly’s Code of Practice on Public Access to Information (third edition). The Code is published on the Internet at http://cymru.gov.uk/publications/accessinfo/code/?lang=en. If you prefer, I can send you a printed copy.

If you believe that I have not applied the Code of Practice on Public Access to Information correctly or have not followed the relevant laws, you may request an internal review by writing to:

Eleanor Marks
Deputy Director
Communities Division
Local Government and Communities
Welsh Government
Rhydycar
Merthyr Tydfil
CF48 1UZ

When dealing with any concerns, we will follow the principles set out in the Welsh Government’s Code of Practice on Complaints which is available on the Internet at www.wales.gov.uk or by post.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. Normally, however, you should pursue the matter through our internal procedure before you complain to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk

Also, if you think that there has been maladministration in dealing with your request then you may make a complaint to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales who can be contacted at:

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
Ffordd yr Hen Gae
Pencoed
Bridgend
CF35 5LJ

Yours sincerely

Third Sector Unit
Welsh Government