The Welsh Government (Heledd Owen) Repeatedly Deny Reasonable FOI Requests

Someone other than me submitted a simple FOI request to the Welsh Government, out of interest in my ongoing ‘conversations’ with Visit Wales. Within one day (! FOI’s are usually responded to within one and three months) Heledd Owen, Director of Marketing at Visit Wales, the body that this FOI request is investigating, responded with the following refusal. Please note that the request is for three dates, some emails between the Visit Wales marketing team and Adventure Tours UK and the written rules that allow Adventure Tours UK a platform but deny Wales Outdoors a platform on the Visit Wales site. This information could be collated by Heledd herself within a couple of hours at the most. I therefore think that there truly must be something that Heledd is very keen to hide… 

Heledd’s response to the FOI request

‘ATISN 19697– Requests for Information 

Information requested 

Thank you for your request which I received on 24 June 2024. You asked for information held by the Welsh Government regarding the Company known as Adventure Tours UK, as follows: 

• The date of onboarding to the Visit Wales website 

• The date of application, if made, for accreditation under the Visit Wales Adventure Activity Assurance Scheme 

• The date of granting, if granted, of accreditation under this scheme 

• The process and emails relating to Adventure Tours UK becoming a 2024 Visit Wales Partner 

• Any data regarding any differences in provision of guided activities between Wales Outdoors, and Adventure Tours UK that would preclude Wales Outdoors a listing under Visit Wales onboarding rules but allow Adventure Tours UK to be promoted and listed with Visit Wales. 

Our response (Heledd Owen’s Response)

From my preliminary assessment, I estimate 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.’

More detail of the request

The reason that Heledd denied this FOI request, and there is no democratic reason or investigative norm, anywhere in the world, where the person under scrutiny decides whether or not information she holds is to be made public or not, is that I submitted the same, on May 8th, with another line requesting ‘all information held by Welsh Government on Adventure Tours UK’ which I amended but Heledd wilfully fails to accept this amendment, sent May 21st, as follows: ‘Thank you and with regard to point 6 'all information' please restrict this to email exchanges between Visit Wales and Adventure Tours UK from September 2022 through to April 2024.’ 

Further, Heledd has aggregated several of my separate requests into one FOI request. And now she has added a request from another person who has an interest in the matter to my requests, which effectively bans me and all other parties from submitting any further FOI requests interrogating the discriminatory practices within the Welsh Government for a period of 60 days. 

Warning, I am going to swear…

What the fuck have Visit Wales, and Heledd Owen in particular, got to hide? 

Why am I asking these questions through FOI requests?

Understanding the onboarding rules that Visit Wales management enforces is key to holding the Visit Wales team to account for the past four years of discriminatory practice that has damaged my business and seen losses of opportunity for me, my sessional employees and tourism in Wales. 

Why do you think that the management at Visit Wales refuses to answer simple questions that if answered could see an end to my campaigning for justice for Wales Outdoors and the opening up of the Visit Wales platform to the many bonafide tourism businesses that currently are not listed on that website. 

You can book our walks through the Wales Outdoors Website.

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