NFRS 2022 56 - Stonewall

You asked for:

This is an information request relating to monies given to Stonewall.

Please provide the following information:

• What was the membership fee given to Stonewall as part of their DiversityChampions programme in 2021-22 by your organisation?
• Is your organisation currently a member of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme?
• What additional monies have been given to Stonewall in 2021-22? Specifically,this incorporates:
  • Events/conferences (where, for example, your organisation has purchased tickets to attend or entered raffles or auctions organised by Stonewall).

    Please name any events/conferences that your organisation attended and the date attended.

  • Other programmes (such as LGВТ Leadership programme, LGВТ Role Model programme, Ally and/or Trans Ally programmes, as well as Train the Trainer programmes).

Our Response:

The information requested has been deemed exempt by virtue of section 21(1) Information reasonably accessible by other means, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

21. Information accessible to applicant by other means.

1. Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.
2. For the purposes of subsection (1)—
   1. Information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and
   2. Information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
3. For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme.

Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is categorised as an Absolute and Class Based type exemption and therefore does not require a public interest test to be carried nor must Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service articulate the harm in disclosure.

The information requested can be accessed at the following location Expenditure over £250

This Letter constitutes a refusal notice under Section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.