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Strategy & Commissioning

Children’s Services Directorate
Minerva House, Pendlebury Road,
Swinton, Salford, M27 4EQ
Ms T Potter
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Your Ref / 0161 778 0147
0161 728 6110


30th July 2009
Subject: /

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION – PARTIAL REFUSAL NOTICE

THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Dear Ms Potter,

I refer to your request for information relating to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. Please accept our apologies for the late response to your request.

Please find attached the completed template in response to your questions. Unfortunately, having considered your request, we have determined that questions A, B and G, relating to year and month of birth, date accommodated and date assessed as aged over 18, are not disclosable under the Freedom of Information Act. This information would constitute personal data and so fall within the Section 40 Exemption.

An explanation of this exemption and how it applies to the requested information is detailed below:

Section 40 – Personal Information

Section 40 (2) provides an exemption from the right to know where the information requested consists of personal data relating to a 3rd party, if its disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles. The first principle requires that the processing of the personal data is fair and lawful, in practice this would be the key issue when considering a request for personal data.

The DPA 1998 defines personal data as:

“data which relate to a living individual who can be identified:

  • From those data; or
  • From those dataand other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controllerand includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual.”

As the statistical information is derived from records that include the names of the individuals concerned, and this is held by the Council (the data controller), the information does constitute personal data, within the definition at section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act as quoted above.

In order to determine if the release of the data would breach any of the data protection principles, the council first needs to consider the potential for identification of an individual, not only based on the statistical information requested, but that of any other information obtainable or already known to the requestor which could be combined with the data in order to identify an individual.

Great care needs to be taken when dealing with requests of this nature. Given the highly sensitive circumstances surrounding these vulnerable children, and our duty of care to them, we need be mindful of any ‘determined person’ with a particular reason to track an individual. We consider that disclosure of information relating to an indication of age and actual date accommodated would increase the risk of identification, particularly by such a person who might already possess specific information about an individual and be trying to track them.

This is borne out by practices of the Home Office, who do not disclose any information about applicants to the authorities in the applicant’s own country. It is further supported by guidance from the Information Commissioner, who advises:

“When considering identifiability it should be assumed that you are not looking just at the means reasonably likely to be used by the ordinary man in the street, but also the means that are likely to be used by a determined person with a particular reason to want to identify individuals. Examples would include investigative journalists, estranged partners, stalkers, or industrial spies”

We consider that having determined that the data is personal and that there is more than a slight hypothetical possibility for identification of an individual, the first data protection principle around fairness would be broken as there is an expectation that information of this nature would remain confidential.

Section 40(5) – Exemption from the Duty to Confirm or Deny – Column G

In the case of information requested in column G re the date assessed as over 18. We are further relying upon exemption 40(5) to neither confirm or deny existence of this information. The reason being that to disclose a date where the individual were assessed as being aged 18 or over, or the highlight the fact that this assessment hasn’t taken place would also provide an indication of age (ie any record with a date would be over 18, any without under 18). As previously explained, we consider this to be identifiable personal data.

I am sorry that we were unable to fully answer your request on this occasion. If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request or wish to make a complaint or appeal against any decision we have made in response to your request you should write in the first instance to Terry Walsh at the following address:

Head of Management Information & Sharing,

Salford Children’s Services, Minerva House,

Pendlebury Road, Swinton, Salford, M27 4EQ

Guidance on how to make a formal appeal against a decision under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is also available on our web site at Should you continue to disagree with the decision following the appeal you may wish to contact the Office of the Information Commissioner at:-

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545700 Fax : 01625 524510

Yours sincerely,
Paula Egerton
Paula Egerton
Partnership Information Officer
Salford Children’s Services