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Dear Mr Tweedy

Re: Request for Internal Review - Request 4292

Thank you for your s dated 26^th August, 3^rd and 7^th September regarding the response to your recent request to the Council (our ref: 4292).

In your s, you asked why your request of 26^th August 2009 had apparently been edited. I have summarised the points raised 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 on this matter was received on 17^th August 2009 when you requested information regarding whether or not CEOs park in motorcycle spaces for free or if they are allocated parking permits. This was responded to on 24^th August 2009. You wrote to the Council on 26^th August 2009 asking for clarification of the responses received and proof relating to the information provided. The email also contained a new request, unrelated to the original response.

When an FOI request is received by the Knowledge and Information Management Team, it is assessed to see whether or not it is a valid request under the Act, or if clarification is needed. If it is a valid request, then the questions requiring a response are extracted from the detail and logged on our internal database for tracking requests. This database is then used to allocate the request to the relevant department. Only the actual questions from a request are uploaded onto the database. This is because the context in which a request is made is not relevant to our consideration as to whether or not the information can be released into the public domain.

In your particular case, upon assessment it was clear that one question in your correspondence was new. This was logged on our database as a request and allocated to Parking for a response. The other two questions were deemed as continuations of your previous request, seeking clarification of the original response. Therefore these were not logged as new requests and hence no acknowledgement was sent to you. Rather, the department corresponded with you directly on this matter.

As outlined above, it is common practice to only log the relevant parts of the request on our FOI Tracker. This is because the Tracker is designed to only log the requests received by the council and not all correspondence relating to a request. This applies to all requests received by the Council, not just those received from the What Do They Know website.

You have also queried why an acknowledgement was not received regarding your emails regarding the editing of your request. Under the Freedom of Information Act, applicants are granted a right of access to information held by the Council. Information held is defined by the act as "information recorded in any form". This means that some questions are simply that and not requests for recorded information. These are often referred to as business as usual requests and do not require a formal response under the Freedom of Information Act. It was deemed that this was an instance where a question was asked rather than a request for information under the terms of the Act. We do however accept that an acknowledgement of the email should have been sent, in the course of normal business.

Further details regarding the Freedom of Information Act including how to make requests can be found here:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/freedom_of_information/your_right_to_know.aspx

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