Equality information

Dear Requester

Request for information - FOI12279

Thank you for your e-mail of 3rd April 2012.

Ordnance Survey responds to each of your questions in turn.  Please note that some of the information is not held and some has been withheld under an exemption within the Freedom of Information Act.  This is detailed where applicable.

'Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:

1. The number of Equalities Impact Assessments the Ordnance Survey completed in each of the last three years (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12)

I confirm Ordnance Survey does hold this information as follows:

2009/10 - 56
2010/11 - 15
2011/12 - 21

2. The number of staff in the Ordnance Survey working on equality/diversity issues (including equalities officers and anyone else involved). Please provide data for each of the last three years (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12)

This information is held in part.

For the last three years there have been 3 staff working on 'core' equality/diversity issues on behalf of the business.

In addition, we have a minimum of 27 equality advocates from six business groups within the organisation each year. We do not hold 'actual' numbers of advocates on a year by year basis. This is because the role of an Equality Advocate is undertaken in conjunction with the employees substantive role and there is no business requirements to record this separately, therefore this information is not held.

3. If any similar Freedom of Information requests have been made, I would be grateful if you could include your responses to them in your answer.

Ordnance Survey has recently received another FOI request relating to equality and diversity. We have responded to this request under the FOIA.

This information is exempt under Section 22 (a) of the FOIA 'Information intended for future publication' because we will publish the request and our response on our FOI and EIR enquiries log web page, as per our current practice. You can locate this page at the following link:

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/aboutus/foi/questions/index.html

Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. Section 22 'Information Intended for Future Publication' is a qualified exemption and we have therefore considered whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

We believe, as there has been interest by more than one party regarding additional FOI requests relating to equality and diversity, that all parties should be treated equally, and have access to the requested information at the time of release, with no requester being favoured over another by advance notification.

Therefore, we have concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information in this instance until it is published, as intended, by Ordnance Survey.

If you are unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal to our Appeals Officer at:

FOI Appeals Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
SOUTHAMPTON
SO16 0AS

Please include the reference number above. The Appeals Officer will ensure that the process has been followed correctly, questioning any decisions taken regarding the original response and recommending disclosure of additional information if appropriate.

Thank you for your enquiry.