I am the review officer appointed to undertake the internal review, being someone who works in an area of the Department having no past or present dealings in relation to the Commission for Local Administration in England, nor the division that deals with this, and who had no involvement in the handling of your original request.

You asked for an internal review of the handling of the response, by Communities and Local Government, to your Freedom of Information request of the 1 September 2009, requesting information pertaining to all documentation identifying the Commission for Local Administration in England (CLAE) omission from the Departmental Public Bodies 2008. You also requested all documentation identifying the Chair and Deputy Chair as subject to pre-appointment hearings.

You did not receive the information that you requested within the statutory twenty working days. You then made a further request for the handling of your request to be reviewed on 5 October. Since you requested the internal review, a response has been sent to you by Vanita Patel (dated 5 October and attached for reference).

I can only apologise to you, on behalf of this Department, for the oversight that has led to your initial FOI request being overlooked. This was the result of an administrative error and I hope that as your request has now been fully met, you are now content.

I have now carefully reviewed the handling process for this request, and I believe that although your request was not initially fulfilled due to an administrative error, that the response you have received since is correct.

If you are not satisfied with my decision, you may write to the Information Commissioner asking him to decide whether Communities and Local Government have complied with their obligations under the Act. You should direct any such appeal to: