Julie Shrive

[by e-mail: [FOI #12535 email]]

Ivan Pocock

Department for Transport

Information Rights Unit

Zone D/04

Ashdown House

Sedlescombe Rd North

St Leonards on Sea

East Sussex

TN37 7GA

Web Site: www.dft.gov.uk

Our Ref: P0005355

1st June 2009

Freedom of Information Request P0005355

Dear Julie Shrive,

I am writing in response to your e-mails of the 29^th May 2009 concerning your Freedom of Information request which you originally made to this Department on 28^th May 2009 for:

“Is it legal for a skip lorry to block the road so one can't turn round? My disabled Kangoo van/car carrying disabled scooter has had its rear windscreen wiper knocked off by a lampost painted black [camouflaged] because road so narrow. Why do police not want to know say civil and firm Brewers couldn't care less I shouldn't have to suffer their illegal? practice nor be out of pocket as a result.”

I would like to explain the reasons for my letter to you of the 28^th May 2009 which sought further clarification of your Freedom of Information request. The team that I work in is responsible for receiving and allocating requests to various policy areas in the Department. It's sometimes necessary for us to seek further clarification from an applicant in order to ensure that the request is allocated to the right policy official to deal with, which in turn ensures the applicant receives the most accurate response.

In this instance I deemed it necessary to seek further clarification from you in order to progress and allocate your request. As I stated in my earlier letter we are unlikely to have recorded information on the legality of skip lorries blocking local roads. If this is the information that you are seeking I would suggest that you contact your local authority / council to discuss the problems that you have experienced as they may be able to provide further advice on local road issues concerning the movement of skip lorries. If your request is not as I have suggested above I would be grateful if you would clarify further.

With regard to your request for an internal review, I am afraid that as per the Freedom of Information Act 2000 section 1(3) (see extract of the Act at Annex A to this letter) we cannot undertake a review at this stage of your request given that we are still looking to clarify what information you are seeking from us. If having clarified your request with you it is deemed suitable for this Department to deal with it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 then we will issue a decision notice within 20 working days as per the timescales laid down in the Act. If at that stage you are unhappy with the decision that we have reached or any aspect of the handling of your request you may then ask for an internal review.

I hope this clarifies the situation.

Yours sincerely,

Ivan Pocock

Information Rights Advisor

Annex A

1 General right of access to information held by public authorities

(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled—

(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and

(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.

(2) Subsection (1) has effect subject to the following provisions of this section and to the provisions of sections 2, 9, 12 and 14.

(3) Where a public authority—

(a) reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the information requested, and

(b) has informed the applicant of that requirement,

the authority is not obliged to comply with subsection (1) unless it is supplied with that further information.

(4) The information—

(a) in respect of which the applicant is to be informed under subsection (1)(a), or

(b) which is to be communicated under subsection (1)(b),

is the information in question held at the time when the request is received, except that account may be taken of any amendment or deletion made between that time and the time when the information is to be communicated under subsection (1)(b), being an amendment or deletion that would have been made regardless of the receipt of the request.

(5) A public authority is to be taken to have complied with subsection (1)(a) in relation to any information if it has communicated the information to the applicant in accordance with subsection (1)(b).

(6) In this Act, the duty of a public authority to comply with subsection (1)(a) is referred to as “the duty to confirm or deny”.