C&RT don’t want to share their furloughed staff numbers

After hearing C&RT had furloughed some of their staff (operational) I was interested it understand how many and of what areas (admin/backside etc) so I put in a FOI (Freedom Of Information) request.

Here is their response.

Reference No: FOI 79/20

Thank you for your request of 8 May 2020.  We have treated your request as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act).

I can confirm that while the Trust holds the information you have requested, its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are limited in scope to information relating to statutory functions which were transferred to it from British Waterways under the British Waterways Board (Transfer of Functions) Order under 2012 – these functions relate to the operation and licensing of vessels on our inland waterway network.

The information you have requested does not relate to the operation or maintenance of our waterways, rather it is in relation to rather it is in relation to the Trust employees that have been furloughed. Therefore, the information you have requested falls outside the scope of the Act.


In my opinion they have conveniently mis-interpreted the FOI, I will follow this up as I think they have (like many others) used the furlough option to in effect save money on staff costs. Now I expect some may disagree with me and I'm happy with that but I think they (C&RT) should have taken the opportunity (with all safety precautions) to use the time the canals were quiet to as a bare minimum do some effective length persons work.