Glasgow, FOI and Equal Pay
My latest FOI request to Glasgow City Council has hit a problem because council officials cannot locate a report on 'Service Reform' to the Corporate Management Team (CMT) held on 5 January 2010.
Now Glasgow is Scotland's largest, best resourced council and you would expect that important records and reports to be 'backed up' in a secure location.
But in this case officials say that a faulty air conditioning unit caused disruption to the City Council's IT functionality in 2015 which 'may' explain why the report I requested cannot be located.
I find that quite incredible, I have to say, given the importance all organisations place these days on backing up and securing their data.
So I plan to submit another FOI Review Request to the City Council in the New Year asking for a more thorough and convincing explanation than the nonsense they've saved up so far.
In the meantime here's what Glasgow had to say for itself along with a Tweet to James Dornan, the MSP for Glasgow Cathcart.
Glasgow City Council's FOI response
Question:
Please provide me with the note of the meeting of Glasgow City Council's 'Financial Challenges Group' dated 15 December 2009.
Please also provide me with a copy of the 'key points' of the Service Reform Programme and Financial Challenges Workstream Projects referred to at Item 5 in the note of the Core Corporate Management Team (CCMT) meeting dated 5 January 2010.
Response:
A copy of the Council’s Financial Challenges Group meeting of 15 December 2009 is enclosed with this response sheet.
At this time, we have been unable to identify the specific report referred to from CMT of 5 January 2010 and so in terms of section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 we must advise you that we do not hold the information that you have requested. We will continue to search for this document but we are required to respond to you within the FOI timescales with our current position. The document you have requested is a number of years old and as you may be aware, the Council suffered significant disruption to our IT systems in December 2015 which was caused by a catastrophic failure of an air conditioning unit. This caused a disruption in IT functionality and it may be that this is the reason why the information in question cannot be located. If we do find the information you have asked for, we will advise you accordingly.
Please provide me with the note of the meeting of Glasgow City Council's 'Financial Challenges Group' dated 15 December 2009.
Please also provide me with a copy of the 'key points' of the Service Reform Programme and Financial Challenges Workstream Projects referred to at Item 5 in the note of the Core Corporate Management Team (CCMT) meeting dated 5 January 2010.
Response:
A copy of the Council’s Financial Challenges Group meeting of 15 December 2009 is enclosed with this response sheet.
At this time, we have been unable to identify the specific report referred to from CMT of 5 January 2010 and so in terms of section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 we must advise you that we do not hold the information that you have requested. We will continue to search for this document but we are required to respond to you within the FOI timescales with our current position. The document you have requested is a number of years old and as you may be aware, the Council suffered significant disruption to our IT systems in December 2015 which was caused by a catastrophic failure of an air conditioning unit. This caused a disruption in IT functionality and it may be that this is the reason why the information in question cannot be located. If we do find the information you have asked for, we will advise you accordingly.
- Can anyone reading this seriously say that we have an open democracy in the UK? This secret secure facility sounds like something out of Indiana Jones for goodness sake
Glasgow City Council has come up with the same lousy excuse in response to one of my FOI requests. All will be revealed soon - and I hope Glasgow's MSPs and MPs will be similarly outraged!
22 November 2017
Annemarie O'Donnell
Chief Executive
Glasgow City Council
By email to - annemarie.odonnell@ced.glasgow.gov.uk
Dear Ms O'Donnell
FOISA Request
I would like to make the following request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
- Please provide me with the note of the meeting of Glasgow City Council's 'Financial Challenges Group' dated 15 December 2009.
- Please also provide me with a copy of the 'key points' of the Service Reform Programme and Financial Challenges Workstream Projects referred to at Item 5 in the note of the Core Corporate Management Team (CCMT) meeting dated 5 January 2010.
I look forward to your reply and would be grateful if you could respond to me by e-mail at: markirvine@compuserve.com
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
