Electric tram maintenance

Summary

A request for electric tram maintenance schedules and specific parts costs was partially refused by the Department of Infrastructure due to ongoing investigations and the practical difficulty of compiling data. While detailed maintenance records were withheld, a summary table of supplier costs for the Snaefell Mountain Railway from April to July 2017 was provided.

Key Facts

• Maintenance schedules were withheld under Section 31 of the FOIA as they are part of ongoing internal and external investigations by the Health and Safety Inspectorate.
• Specific parts and costs could not be provided individually because doing so would require substantial analysis and manual compilation of paper invoices.
• The Department cited the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 as the legal basis for maintaining the schedules for compliance audits.
• A partial disclosure was made in Appendix 1 showing supplier names and total amounts spent on materials for the Snaefell Mountain Railway.
• The public interest test concluded that the need for a safe space for investigations outweighed the public interest in disclosure for the maintenance schedules.

Data Disclosed

• 2017-08-04
• 2017-09-07
• Section 31(1)
• Section 33(1)
• Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974
• 1st April 2017
• 31/07/2017
• 21/04/2017
• 24/04/2017
• £1,570.00
• Hamilton Project Management Ltd.

Exemptions Cited

• Section 31(1) - Investigations and legal proceedings (Qualified Exemption)
• Section 11(2)(b) - Practical refusal reason (substantial compilation or collation)

Data Tables (2)

Full Response Text

Question 1. In this instance the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows a public authority to withhold information if it is being held for the purpose of investigations and legal proceedings.

Under section 31(1) qualified refusal reason (a) an investigation that the public authority has a duty to conduct to ascertain whether – (i) a person should be charged with an offence; or (ii) a person charged with an offence is guilty of it; (b) an investigation, conducted by the public authority, that in the circumstances may lead to criminal proceedings being instituted;

The schedules you have requested are kept to fulfil the Department’s responsibilities under the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (as applied to the Isle of Man October 1998). Their purpose is to enable investigations or legal compliance audits:

Section 33(1) It is an offence for a person -

(a) to fail to discharge a duty to which he is subject by virtue of sections 2 to 7 (of the HSWA)

Most notably:

Section 2 - General duties of employers to their employees;

Section 3 - General duties of employers and self-employed to persons other than their employees;

Section 7 - General duties of employees at work.

The maintenance schedules are currently part of an investigation being carried out internally by this department as well as externally by the Health and Safety Inspectorate.

Section 31 of the FOIA is a Qualified Exemption and therefore subject to a Public Interest Test. In assessing where the public interest lies, the following factors have been considered.

In favour of disclosure:

 likely to improve public confidence that maintenance inspections are fit for purpose;  likely to improve confidence that incidents are investigated with the appropriate degree of rigour;  likely to improve confidence in the safe operation of the Island’s Railways.

In favour of maintaining the exemption and withholding the information:

 while investigations are ongoing, the Department and the HSWI require a safe space in which to operate, away from external interference and distraction;  premature disclosure may lead the requester and members of the public to prejudge without knowing all of the factual information;  in order to carry out investigations effectively, a level of discretion is required when gathering information and evidence, otherwise people may not disclose what they know and the outcome may be at risk.

Having balanced the factors in favour of disclosure with the factors in favour of maintaining the exemption, we consider that the exemption under Section 31 currently outweighs the public interest in disclosure for question 1 of this request.

Question 2. Under sections 11(2)(b) of the Act - practical refusal reason, referencing s8(3), while there is some information held by the Department, the Act states that:

a public authority is not required to: create or derive information from information that it holds; undertake research into, or analysis of, information that it holds; or undertake substantial compilation or collation of information that it holds

We do not record information in a format that allows us to answer your question without substantial analysis and compilation. This means that, in order to supply the names of the parts alongside the costs, every paper invoice for the Transport Services Division would have to be viewed and the information relating to parts manually extracted from them all.

We are however happy to provide (in Appendix 1) a table which shows the costs of materials and parts purchased for the maintenance of the Snaefell Mountain Railway from the beginning of this financial year (1st April 2017) to the end of July 2017 (as not all invoice data is available yet for August). While unable to show individual parts, the table does show the names of suppliers and the amounts spent.

Your right to request a review

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 complaint form and submitting it electronically to foi.doi@gov.im or by delivery/post to The FOI Co-ordinator, Department of Infrastructure, Sea Terminal Buildings, Douglas, IM1 2RF. An electronic version and paper version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at www.gov.im/foireview

Your review 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 concluded.

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: www.inforights.im/

APPENDIX 1 Period From: 01/04/2017 | Period To: 31/07/2017 Date Account Name Amount 21/04/2017 Hamilton Project Management Ltd. £1,570.00 24/04/2017 Veh Rep and Maint - Rolling Stk Maintt Costs Rail £71.50 26/04/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £98.08 26/04/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £40.40 26/04/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £20.54 26/04/2017 Haldane Fisher (IOM) Ltd £70.20 26/04/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £94.80 26/04/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £67.64 27/04/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £49.50 02/05/2017 Absopulse Electronics Ltd £896.52 02/05/2017 Dave's Joinery £220.50 12/05/2017 CPM Engineering £1,500.00 12/05/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £1,077.24 12/05/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £607.55 16/05/2017 William Hackett Chain Products Limited £100.00 18/05/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £52.32 18/05/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £166.81 18/05/2017 Express Fixings & Fittings Ltd £95.57 18/05/2017 Buchanan & Pitts £1,450.00 19/05/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £46.97 31/05/2017 CPM Engineering £1,938.00 31/05/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £6.50 31/05/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £2.72 31/05/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £266.76 31/05/2017 Dave's Joinery £168.00 31/05/2017 Veh Rep and Maint - Rolling Stk Maintt Costs Rail £92.79 01/06/2017 Ashcrofts (1997) Ltd £196.13 02/06/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £6.30 02/06/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £217.85 02/06/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £1,183.00 02/06/2017 Manx Petroleums Limited £125.50 13/06/2017 Ekaton Ltd £1,259.00 22/06/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £57.00 22/06/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £46.00 22/06/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £273.68 03/07/2017 BOC Limited £92.37 03/07/2017 BOC Limited £91.35 03/07/2017 BOC Limited £101.90 03/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £49.66 03/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £140.97 03/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £271.44 03/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £869.00 19/07/2017 Manx Petroleums Limited £62.00 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £81.91 Transaction Details Period From: 01/04/2017 | Period To: 31/07/2017 Transaction Details 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £23.11 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £132.79 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £130.08 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £65.40 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd £64.29 19/07/2017 Edmundson Electrical Ltd -£45.00 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £183.12 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £115.21 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £142.42 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £51.62 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £116.60 19/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £18.00 19/07/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £860.49 19/07/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £20.76 19/07/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £304.90 19/07/2017 WDS Ltd £351.54 21/07/2017 Haldane Fisher (IOM) Ltd £62.41 21/07/2017 Signrite (IOM) Ltd £40.00 21/07/2017 City Plumbing Supplies Limited £345.32 24/07/2017 Hamilton Project Management Ltd. £2,576.04 24/07/2017 Steam Packet Co Workshops £251.62 25/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £99.76 25/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £25.80 25/07/2017 Manjak Limited ta/ Jacksons £251.76 31/07/2017 Veh Rep and Maint - Rolling Stk Maintt Costs Rail £275.70 £22,359.71