Standard Settings for A4 Letter

Date:13 May 2015

Enquiries To:Performance Management

& Assurance Officer My Reference:cb/13.05.15/Gray

Extension:2149Your Reference:247202-3e0526f0

DearMr Gray

I am writing to you with reference to your recent request that an official review be carried out in relation to a Freedom of Information request, originally submitted to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS), on 7 January 2015. I have carried out a full review of the original request, action taken and subsequent communications. Findings are as follows:

On the 7 January a Freedom of Information request was submitted by yourself, requesting “details of incidents which attract 8 and 8+ appliances with the following information for the last 5 years:

Date, time, appliances and call signs, specialist appliances (and what this is), officers and call signs, incident and time, type of incidents, location, type of premises i.e. hospital, outcome i.e. fire or secondary fire”.

In addition, the stop message and informative messages from the crew on scene was also requested.

You also stated in your email that “If cost prohibits any of the full information, please remove any section that would allow the request to be made”.

On the 12 January 2015 we emailed you a letter signed from the HFRS Information Compliance Officer, acknowledging the request and requesting that further details relating to “a fixed date and time frame” were required to progress the request.

On the 18 March 2015 a letter including information relating to the original request submitted on 7 January 2015 was sent to you. It was acknowledged in the letter that this response had taken longer that the statutory 20 day limit due to the manual nature of the work taken to respond to the request.

Information regarding the first informative and stop messages was not included due to the manual and lengthy process required to provide this information, which may have incurred omissions if the information was not conclusive. The letter made reference to your original request which stated that “if costs prohibit any of the full information, please remove any section that would allow the request to be made”.

On the 27 April 2015, you wrote to HFRS to request an internal review of the handling of the FOI request as well as the provision of ‘stop messages’. You indicated that other Fire and Rescue Services had been able to provide this information.

On the 28 April, we responded confirming that it was not possible to supply the stop and informative messages due to the lengthy and manual process it would take to compile this information; that the current recording systems in place are not simple to interrogate to the level required and that not every Fire and Rescue Service uses the same systems, hence the variation in response to your original request.

After reviewing the correspondence between HFRS and yourself, as well as the time taken to provide as much information as possible without incurring significant costs to the Service, I am happy that the response provided is adequate on this occasion. I would like to once again highlight that you did state that “if cost prohibits any of the full information, please remove any section that would allow the request to be made”. I am happy that this statement indicates that, should all the information not be easily obtainable without incurring unnecessary costs, that this would be deemed acceptable.

I hope you find the above satisfactory. Should you remain dissatisfied you may appeal against this decision by contacting the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Catherine Barnard

Performance Management & Assurance Manager

Knowledge Management