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Dear Ms Adams

Re: Request for Internal Review - Request 4006

Thank you for your dated 23^rd July 2009 regarding the response to your recent request to the Council.

In your you asked for an internal review of the handling of your Request. I have summarised the details of your appeal below:

I am sorry that you are dissatisfied with our handling of your requests and I have investigated your complaints under Stage 1 of the Council's Corporate Complaints Procedure. Further details of our procedure can be found on our website: http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/councilgovernmentanddemocracy/councils/contactsconsultationandfeedback/complaints-and-compliments/complaints/

Response

Your original request to the Council was made on the 30^th June 2009 via the What Do They Know website. You asked to be provided with the names of Councillors who had registered for pay by phone (PbP) parking. A response to this request was provided on 22^nd July 2009.

A similar request was also made by you on 6th July 2009. This request recognised that there might be privacy issues with regard to the names of Councillors who had registered for PbP parking. It asked instead for the number of Councillors who had registered for PbP parking.

However, it was not clear from your email that this was to replace you original request. Therefore the response that you received on 22^nd July 2009 was in relation to your original request - i.e. the names of Councillors who had been registered for PbP parking.

Having reviewed the response to your reqeust dated 30^th June, I am satisfied that the Council has correctly applied the exemption at Section 40(2) with regard to the names of the Councillors who have registered for PbP parking. As explained in our response, this information relates to the private lives of the councillors concerned as the Council does not provide them with PbP parking in their role as Councillor. Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act states that information is exempt from disclosure if:

(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if-

(a) it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1), and

(b) either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.

(3) The first condition is-

(a) in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of "data" in section 1 (1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene -

(i) any of the data protection principles;

Section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act defines personal data as:

data which relate to a living individual who can be identified—

(a) from those data, or

(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller,

and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual;

As the request was for the identification of which Councillors held PbP parking tickets, the information would fall within the definition of Section 1(1) of the Act i.e. personal data.

With regard to your specific questions:

What personal data is being requested from Councillors?

Councillors are not provided with PbP parking by the Council and therefore any registration they make for PbP parking is done in a private capacity. They are also not required to inform the Council as to whether or not they have signed up to PbP parking. The names of the Councillors constitute personal data, as defined by the Data Protection Act (DPA), and therefore the Council must consider whether disclosure would breach the principles of the DPA. In this case, the information relates to the private life of a Councillor. It is considered that it would be unfair to release details relating to any individual's PbP parking details into the public domain. As Councillors are registered for PbP parking in a private capacity, this would also apply to them and therefore the information is exempt.

What personal data is being requested from Councillors' families?

As outlined in our letter previously, individuals can register numerous parties on a single registration. There is no way of demonstrating whether or not registrations relate to individuals or not and therefore disclosure could potentially identify the individuals concerned. For the reasons outlined above, this information would not be disclosed.

The specific part of the Data Protection Act applied.

I am satisifed that the Council has clearly stated which exemption within the Act they are applying and which part of the Data Protection Act this relates to. Therefore, this aspect of your complaint is not upheld.

Summary

The response sent to you on 22^nd July relates to your original request for the names of Councillors with pay by phone parking accounts. I am satisifed that the Council was correct in applying Section 40(2) to this request.

As explained, it was not clear from your email dated 6^th July that you wished to withdraw your original request. I acknowledge that this may have caused some confusion with regard to the response that you received.

With regard to your revised request (our ref: FOI 4167), I can advise that a total of 17 councillors from the list you provided have registered for the Council's PbP parking scheme.

This completes the internal review into the handling of your Request under the Council's complaints procedure. Should you be dissatisfied with our response, you are entitled to contact the Information Commissioner under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. For your reference, I have provided his contact details below:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45
Fax: 01625 524510

Web: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely,

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Under the Data Protection Act 1998, Data Subjects have rights to challenge, alter or erase the inaccurate and unlawful processing of their information. In the first instance please contact The Data Protection Officer, Information Services, 101 Orchardson Street, London NW8 8EA. If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact The Information Commissioner: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF