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Dear Graham

Re: Request for Internal Review - Request 4238

Thank you for your dated 25^th September 2009 regarding the response to your recent request to the Council (our ref: 4238).

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

The Council received your original request on the 14^th August 2009 and provided a response on the 18^th September 2009. You sent an email to the Parking Customer Relations on the 19^th September 2009 querying the response you had received, and, having not received a response, you then submitted this as a request for an internal review under FOI on the 25^th September 2009.

Having reviewed your original request, and the Council's response to it, I can confirm that the Council provided the information queried in the first two points of your complaint. The reponse included a table which detailed all instances of outages in the specified time period, and provided the length of time for all those occasions on which the system was down as well as the number of PCNs issued in that time. This accounts for all instances where the system was unavailable for use.

The first two aspects of your complaint are, therefore, not upheld.

In question 5 of your original request you asked "For each of these outages, how many tickets were issued in the first hour following the system being usable again?". You have queried the information provided as follows "I believe the figures you have provided are for the first hour of the outage, I am asking for the first hour after the service was restored. Please check these figures". Having checked the figures I can confirm that the information that was provided to you was correct: although the figures are very similar, the relevant column in the table does present the number of PCNs issued in the first hour after the system was reinstated, and not the number issued in the first hour of the system being unavailable.

As a result this aspect of your complaint is not upheld.

In question 6 of your original request you asked "What is the WCC policy on challenges to parking tickets during these outages or the hours after the system coming back up."

The Council's original response did not contain any information to answer this request and as a result this aspect of your complaint is upheld.

I can inform you here, that the policy regarding challenges to parking tickets, which can be proven to have been incorrectly issued during times when the system is unavailable, is that they will be cancelled.

In order to avoid being issued with a PCN during times when the system is unavailable for use, motorists calling to use the Pay by Phone service will be informed, by automated message, to use other payment facilities, where available, or to move.

If Civil Enforcement Officers' hand held computers are collectively not updating, enforcement of Pay by Phone bays will be suspended. This is in case a motorist has paid for the maximum stay by phone just prior to the system becoming unavailable for use. During this time CEOs will log vehicles so that they can recommence normal enforcement after the maximum stay has elapsed as by then all potential Pay by Phone payments would have expired.

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