Positive feedback on school dinners

Summary

The requester asked for all positive feedback regarding new primary school dinners following a Minister's statement to the Tynwald Select Committee. The Department of Education, Sport and Culture released some information but withheld parts citing exemptions for personal data and the conduct of public business.

Key Facts

• The request was received on 2025-09-24 and the response was issued on 2025-10-21.
• The authority responded with 42 pages across 2 documents.
• Some information was withheld as absolutely exempt personal data under section 25(b)(i)&(ii).
• Other information was withheld under section 35(c) regarding the conduct of public business.
• The Department cited potential prejudice to working relationships with private providers as a reason for withholding.

Data Disclosed

• 2025-09-24
• 2025-10-21
• 42
• 2
• 4955893
• IM4 3AS
• 01624 685808

Exemptions Cited

• Section 25(b)(i)&(ii) - Absolutely exempt personal information
• Section 35(c) - Conduct of Public Business

Original Request

In a statement to the Tynwald Select Committee, the Minister said that the feedback on new primary school dinners was overwhelmingly positive. Please send me all positive feedback received, with the senders details redacted. If there has been a method of gaining this feedback, please share the results- otherwise, I would like to see emails, letters or any other communication providing this feedback.

Data Tables (2)

Full Response Text

Policy, Strategy and Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian Foxdale Road St Johns IM4 3AS

Telephone: (01624) 685808 Website: www.gov.im/dec Email: dec@foi.gov.im

Our ref: 4955893 21 October 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 24 September 2025, which states:

"In a statement to the Tynwald Select Committee, the Minister said that the feedback on new primary school dinners was overwhelmingly positive.

Please send me all positive feedback received, with the senders details redacted. If there has been a method of gaining this feedback, please share the results- otherwise, I would like to see emails, letters or any other communication providing this feedback."

Our response to your request is as follows: I have enclosed copies of the information.

Redacted Content

s25(b)(i)&(ii)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information because it is absolutely exempt under section 25 of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information). The reasons why that exemption applies are that:
• The Department of Education, Sport and Culture is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and
• The Department of Education, Sport and Culture is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Department of Education, Sport and Culture can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 and in this case, none of those conditions have been met.

Section 35 (c) – Conduct of Public Business

In this instance some of the information is exempt under section 35 of the Act, as disclosure would be likely to otherwise prejudice the effective conduct of public business.
As section 35 is a qualified exemption, it is subject to a public interest test. The public interest must be something that is of serious concern and benefit to the public at large.

Factors in favour of disclosure
• Disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote openness and accountability to the general public.

Factors in favour of withholding
• Impact of disclosure on core authority functions e.g. if disclosure may leave the authority unprepared or unable to cope with a reaction, which might affect the performance of core functions, disclosure may not be in the public interest.

• It is not in the public interest for the Department’s working relationships with private providers to be prejudiced by the disclosure of the requested information.

• The information could be misinterpreted

Out of Scope Information
Some of the information included within the enclosed documentation is out of scope of the request. By way of advice and assistance this information has been marked in grey.

Please quote the reference number 4955893 in any future communications.

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 or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. 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 2015; 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 right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. 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.

I will now close your request as of this date.

From: on behalf of DESC, Minister To: Subject: FW: School Dinners - Thank you Date: 04 September 2025 14:34:00 Attachments: image003.jpg Hi   Just wanted to share with you this positive feedback that the Minister received regarding school meals for your information   Best wishes   Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture 01624 | www.gov.im/desc     From: Caine, Daphne Daphne.Caine@gov.im Sent: 04 September 2025 14:31 To: DESC, Primary School Meals PrimarySchoolMeals@gov.im Cc: DESC, Minister Minister.DESC@gov.im Subject: RE: School Dinners - Thank you   Dear   Many thanks for taking the trouble to write and copy your feedback to me.   As you say, change is rarely universally popular but hopefully everyone will support the ambition of the new menu, which will continue to be refined in response to feedback.   Best wishes Daphne   Daphne Caine Member of the House of Keys for Garff Minister for Education, Sport and Culture Isle of Man GC website banners islandplan.im/conference25   From:

Sent: 04 September 2025 13:33 To: DESC, Primary School Meals PrimarySchoolMeals@gov.im Cc: Caine, Daphne Daphne.Caine@gov.im; Subject: School Dinners - Thank you   Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Dear Primary School Meals,       I just wanted to email directly to thank you for bringing in the recent changes to the school dinner menu.       My child has been on school dinners for a couple of years, but to be honest I have always felt guilty about this and was seriously considering switching to packed lunches due to the previous high level of processed food and in my opinion unnecessary unhealthy desserts. We try (not always succeeding) to have a balanced diet at home, and I found it highly frustrating that this was being undermined by the previous school dinner options.     I have copied in your Minister and my local Members, as whilst I am sure this move will not be universally popular, I wanted to share that it is very popular in this household – child included .       Thank you for being bold enough to make change and long may it last.       Best wishes     From: on behalf of DESC, Minister To: Caine, Daphne Cc: DESC, Minister Subject: FW: School lunches Date: 12 September 2025 14:40:00 Hi Minister   Please see some positive feedback passed on from   Thank you   Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture 01624 | www.gov.im/desc     From: On Behalf Of DESC, Primary School Meals Sent: 12 September 2025 12:32 To: DESC, Minister Minister.DESC@gov.im Subject: FW: School lunches   Hi Another positive for Minister   Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS 01624 | www.gov.im/desc   Our Organisational Values:  Respect, Integrity, Caring, Fairness & Trust   WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible.   From:

Sent: 06 September 2025 11:41 To: DESC, Primary School Meals PrimarySchoolMeals@gov.im Subject: School lunches   Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Thank you for changing the school dinners.   Less processed food means better behaviour and less constipation in the children.   Keep it up, maybe add some broccoli?   From: To: DESC, Minister Subject: School dinners Date: 07 September 2025 06:57:21 Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links. Dear Hon Daphne Caine, I am extremely relieved that our school menu has changed. I have expressed concerns about the previous types of foods served in the past to our local MHKs and I felt it was a loosing battle. It is very sad to see all the negative comments and the negative press release we see since this change has happened. I feel people are not educated enough to understand the long term effects of ultra processed foods . There is without a doubt enough evidence to suggest the extent of harm it will cause. I have concerns with the rate this is going it will revert back to what it was. We need to see some more support from our MHKs and ministers to back this change. I have contacted a group of GPs and we all have very similar views on this. I just wanted to show my support on this and hopefully convince departmental members to speak up as well. Please feel free to circulate my email within the department if you feel it would help. Thank you for your time Best wishes, From: To: DESC, Minister; Subject: School Meals positive feedback Date: 22 September 2025 11:05:10 Attachments: image001.jpg   Dear Minister and   For your information, positive and constructive feedback from a valued source below.   Best regards,   Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS 01624 | www.gov.im/desc   Our Organisational Values:  Respect, Integrity, Caring, Fairness & Trust   WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible.     From:

Sent: 22 September 2025 10:46 To: Subject: Fwd: School Meals - Matt Berry - Irene Berry (Head of catering IOM College)   Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links.  Good Morning Lady's,   Please find email from     Kind Regards         From: on behalf of DESC, Primary School Meals To: Subject: FW: Awaiting response to last email Date: 03 October 2025 11:39:25 Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS 01624 | www.gov.im/desc Our Organisational Values:  Respect, Integrity, Caring, Fairness & Trust WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible. -----Original Message----- From: Sent: 18 September 2025 22:13 To: DESC, Primary School Meals PrimarySchoolMeals@gov.im Subject: Awaiting response to last email Caution: This email is from an external sender. Please take care before opening any attachments or following any links. Good evening, Whilst my son (primary aged) is enjoying your nutritious offering, As a parent I must allow my children the freedom to make their own choices of food without daily judgment from me, and although I can suggest better choices, I can’t enforce it (and don’t want to). I am delighted with the steps you have taken at primary schools, and hope they will be replicated in high schools in the very near future. Thank you Sent from my iPhone

On 26 Aug 2025, at 12:53, wrote:

Good afternoon,

I’m really happy to see you have launched a new primary school menu which almost entirely avoids UPF. I think it’s an excellent step forward.

Can I please ask when you’ll address high school meal options. Hello, Given that people are accustomed to eating poorly as adults, with health related issues on the rise directly resulting from poor food and lifestyle choices, such as T2 diabetes, and little heed taken of World Health recommendations, well done on menu changes. Ketchup and mayo are not staples. The uproar about ice cream is ridiculous. Fruit should be priority over stodgey desserts and no doubt the new menu supports local, drives efficiencies and will assist in painting the taste pallets of our young people. There is always packed lunch for the non supporters! Kind regards Sent from Outlook for Android From: on behalf of DESC, Primary School Meals To: Subject: FW: Positive comment school meals Date: 03 October 2025 11:39:06 Policy, Strategy & Governance Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS 01624 | www.gov.im/desc Our Organisational Values:  Respect, Integrity, Caring, Fairness & Trust WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee of this email, please delete it and notify the sender as soon as possible. -----Original Message----- From: Sent: 12 September 2025 15:43 To: DESC, Primary School Meals PrimarySchoolMeals@gov.im Subject: FW: Positive comment school meals Department of Education, Sport and Culture Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St John's, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS 01624 | www.gov.im/desc Our Organisational Values:  Respect, Integrity, Caring, Fairness & Trust WARNING: This email message and any files transmitted with it are confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. You must not copy or deliver it to any other person or use the contents in any unauthorised manner without the express permission of the

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