Suspensions

Summary

The requester asked for a 10-year breakdown of school suspensions by student count and total instances, but the Department of Education refused the 10-year scope due to the FOI Act's 2011 start date and denied the student count data on practical grounds.

Key Facts

• The Freedom of Information Act only applies to information created on or after 11 October 2011.
• The request for data covering the past 10 years (from 2007) was partially refused due to the Act's temporal limitations.
• The request for a total number of children suspended was refused on the grounds that a practical refusal reason applies.
• The response was issued by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture on 15 November 2017.
• Applicants have the right to request an internal review or appeal to the Information Commissioner if dissatisfied.

Data Disclosed

• 11 October 2011
• 15 November 2017
• 2017-10-19
• Oct 2007 - Oct 2017
• 10 years
• Reference Number IM107501I
• 3 pages
• 1 document

Exemptions Cited

• Temporal limitation of the Freedom of Information Act (information created before 11 October 2011)
• Practical refusal reason

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

15 November 2017

Re: Your Freedom of Information Request 2 of 3 – Reference Number IM107501I

Your Request:-

I would like to request that the total number of children who have been at some time or another suspended briefly from the Island's schools, over the past 10 years, be made public.

I would ask that this is documented as a total number of children, rather than individual instances of suspension, and I would ask that this is broken down school by school, so e.g:

"From Oct 2007 - Oct 2017" "St Ninians - XX" "Ballakermeen - XX" "Rushen - XX" "Foxdale - XX" "Etc"

I would ask that this covers both secondary and primary schools

I would also like to ask that the over all number of instances of individual suspension be released, broken down into 2 groups covering primary and secondary schools. That is to say if in a 10 year period one child incurred 10 instances of suspension at a school, and another 5 the over all total is logged at 15, rather than two children.

Department Response

Firstly in respect of your request for information on school suspensions over the past 10 years, I would like to take this opportunity to advise that the right of access to information under the Freedom of Information Act only applies to information created on or after 11 October 2011 (s4 of the Act).

In respect of your request for suspension data presented as a total number of children (rather than individual instances) this is refused on the grounds that a practical refusal reason applies.

This is because:- Department of Education and Children

Rheynn Ynsee as Paitchyn

Chief Executive Officer Prof Ronald Barr

Department of Education and Children Hamilton House Peel Road Douglas IM1 5EZ

website in due course should you wish to revisit the information.

If you are unhappy with this response to your Freedom of Information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a Review/Complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post to:

Mr Andrew Shipley, Legal and Administration Manager, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 5EZ.

An electronic version of our Review/Complaint form can be found by going to https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/freedom-of-information/

Your Review/Complaint request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been conducted.

Appeal Process

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on;

1

Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act; or 2

Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.

In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision.

More detailed information on your rights to review is on the Information Commissioner’s website at https://www.inforights.im/contact-us/

Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Further information about Freedom of Information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi

Yours sincerely