Fairbourne

Sent: 25 May 2022 17:18
To: 
Subject: Information requested - EIR/REQ/ESNR/Fairbourne (16282 – subsequently proceeded by 16288 following receipt of confirmation pertaining to information)

Dear             

Thank you for your request which I received on 6 May 2022.

You asked for:

1. Copies of communications with Gwynedd Council regarding the economics of Fairbourne

2. Copies of discussions with Gwynedd Council regarding any review of ' Technical Group Overview Report - The Technical Summary of Impacts of Changing Risk at Fairbourne'

3. The number of transportations, flood risk or health schemes, since 2017, receiving Welsh Government funding where the BCR is 0.98 or closer to 1.

Our response

Question 1

Details on an application for the Fairbourne Social & Economic - Strategic Outline Case, until; 31/12/2022 as attached. This will provide a wider understanding of the work being undertaken by Gwynedd in considering the Economics of policy change in Fairbourne.

Question 2

Following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you require for point 2 in relation discussions with Gwynedd Council relating the Technical Summary of Impacts of Changing Risk at Fairbourne' to is not held by the Welsh Government.

We have received the technical summary, as attached. However, any assessment is for Gwynedd council to consider as the RMA. While the Welsh Government sets national strategy and policy to inform local decision making, supported through our investment programmes, Welsh Government has no formal role in reviewing Gwynedd County Council’s coastal policy.

Local authorities are responsible for and best placed to set the policies for future management of the coastline and implementing these. The Welsh Government has not made a decision to stop funding defences at Fairbourne or set a timetable for doing so, and to offer some reassurance, a policy of Managed Realignment, such as the case in Fairbourne, does not mean the withdrawal of support.

As this is information is owned, managed and published by Gwynedd Council.

You may want to contact Gwynedd Council to make an FOI request at:

Email: RhyddidGwybodaeth@gwynedd.llyw.cymru

By Post: Senior Statutory Data Protection Officer, Council Office, Shirehall Street, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH

Question 3

From our preliminary assessment, I estimate that it will cost more than the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to answer your request. The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600. This represents the estimated cost of it taking over 24 hours of time to determine whether we hold the information and to thereafter locate, retrieve and extract it.

There is no central repository of such schemes and their assessments, neither centrally nor by policy division. It would therefore be necessary to first locate all schemes in scope for each of these policy areas, and then to access files and read through relevant documentation to establish if the information is in scope and whether BCR information is held. This would be a manual process.

I have asked the policy areas to assess how much information is in scope within their areas so that I may assess the size of the task. Based on estimates of the number of files that would need to be manually reviewed and on a review time per file of 15 minutes (which was obtained from a sample exercise of 4 files), I estimate that the amount of time required to identify, review and extract the information requested would be in excess of 100 hours and thus clearly exceeds the appropriate limit.

The National Transport Finance Plan team did provide me with information from their sample exercise, and I attach, for your interest, their Local Authority network Eastern Bay Link and Five Mile Lane Schemes BCR’s documentation. This is provided for your interest but does not constitute part of our reply under FOI, as the information captured in question 3 of your request is exempt under FOIA S.12 – the appropriate limit.

Flood team further added the observation that In their view this task could not provide an accurate reflection of viability either, as scoring systems are likely to vary across departments and policy divisions, and each case needs to be appraised on its own merit. As we do not hold a Business Case for the Fairbourne Project information, no true comparison could be made.

The Health team also added a general comment that funding may be awarded for projects with a BCR of less than 1, where significant unquantifiable impacts are considered an important consideration in an options appraisal. While a business case seeks to quantify significant costs and benefits, it is not always practical nor proportionate to quantify all impacts with sufficient robustness. In cases where it is not possible to monetise important costs and benefits with the appropriate precision, net present values may be presented, rather than BCRs.

Next steps

The request you sent me contains personal information about you - for example, your name and address. The Welsh Government will be the data processor for this information and, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, it will be processed in order to fulfil our public task and meet our legal obligations under the Act to provide you with a response.

We will only use this personal information to deal with your request and any matters which arise as a result of it. We will keep your personal information and all other information relating to your request for three years from the date on which your request is finally closed.  Your personal information will then be disposed of securely.

Under data protection legislation, you have the right:  

• to be informed of the personal data we hold about you and to access it
• to require us to rectify inaccuracies in that data
• to (in certain circumstances) object to or restrict processing
• for (in certain circumstances) your data to be ‘erased’
• to (in certain circumstances) data portability
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection

For further information about the information which the Welsh Government holds and its use, or if you wish to exercise your rights under the GDPR, please see contact details below:

Data Protection Officer
Welsh Government
Cathays Park    
CARDIFF
CF10 3NQ
Email:    DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response. Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

Information Rights Unit, 
Welsh Government, 
Cathays Park, 
Cardiff, 
CF10 3NQ 

or Email: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales 

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office, 
Wycliffe House, 
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF. 

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process

Yours sincerely