Ganesh Sittampalam
Via email: [FOI #18004 email]
12 October 2009
Dear Mr Sittampalam,
Request for Information – RFI20091304
Thank you for your request of 14 September 2009 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 seeking the
following information:
The ICO is considering a complaint from January 2009 about your application of the s43 exemption to a
request that is summarised as "Agreements, contracts and arrangements between BBC and any
organisation contracted by the BBC using generic name 'TV licensing'".
Please supply a copy of all correspondence to and from the requestor about this request. I recognise that
you will need to redact personal information.
Having conducted a search for requests which have been referred to the Information Commissioner
involving the application of Section 43 and TV Licensing contracts, we have identified Information
Commissioner case reference FS50215409, our reference IC2008050. We have identified no other
Information Commissioner cases matching these criteria. IC2008050 relates to our original RFI number
RFI20080647, which was subsequently subject to an internal review – ref IR2008026.
Please find attached three disclosure documents as follows:
• Disclosure document 1 - correspondence held which was sent to or received from the requestor
in relation to Request for Information - RFI20080647
• Disclosure document 2 - correspondence held which was sent to or received from the requestor
in relation to Internal Review – IR2008026
• Disclosure document 3 - correspondence held which was sent to or received from the requestor
in relation to Information Commissioner case – IC2008050 (their ref FS50215409)
Please note that I have been unable to locate a copy of the original request for RFI20080647 but you will
note that this is quoted in our response.
As you anticipated, I have redacted the name and contact details of the requestor because this constitutes
personal information which could lead to the requestor being identified. Personal information about living
individuals is exempt Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act if disclosure to a third party would
breach one or more principles of the Data Protection Act 1998. As individuals who submit FOI requests
to the BBC do not expect their identities and personal details to be disclosed to other requestors, to do so
would be unfair; therefore, disclosure would breach the First Data Protection Principle, fairness. Where
data has been redacted under this exemption the removed text has been manually marked ‘S40’ (referring
to the fact the data has been redacted as exempt under section 40).
I have also attached as disclosure document 4, an additional piece of correspondence in the form of a letter
sent from the ICO to the BBC on January 7th 2009. Whilst this document does not fall within the scope of
your request because it does not constitute correspondence sent to or from the requestor, I have included
this document as it is the latest correspondence held by the BBC on this matter. Essentially this confirms
that the ICO has received a further complaint from the requestor on a different aspect of the handling of
this FOI request and has assessed that the complaint is eligible for the ICO to decide whether the BBC has
dealt with the request in accordance with the Act. It appears that the case is currently with the ICO,
awaiting allocation of a case officer. Please note that in all cases where text has been redacted from this
document, the text in question is the name of the requestor.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior manager
or legal adviser. Please contact us at the address above, explaining what you would like us to review and
including your reference number. If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to the
Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Kind regards
Louise Wright
Advisor, Information Policy & Compliance
