Corporate Director Finance

Myfanwy Barrett

BY EMAIL

Marlon Campbell

[FOI #27323 email]

27 January 2010

Dear Mr Campbell

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Further to our email of 20 January 2010, your request for information received on 19 January 2010, is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”).

I set out your specific requests and the Council's response as follows:

For the 100 most recent FOI requests which the council considers closed, be that because the request was rejected, met, or declared "not held", please provide the following information:

Please see the attached spreadsheet.

Please see the attached spreadsheet.

(3) The date the request was acknowledged.

See below.

(4) The date the initial final response was given

See below.

(5) The status of this response, ie met, not held, rejected

Please see the attached spreadsheet

(6) Whether an Internal Review was requested, and if so the date on which this was completed and the outcome status

See below.

(7) Whether the FOI Request to the council's knowledge was referred to the ICO.

See below.

(8) Whether the ICO issued any guidance or instruction to the council following this referral.

See below.

(9) The final outcome after the ICO referral.

See below.

It is understood that a case may be referred to the ICO after the council regards it a closed, and so this list request may not be final and definitive, but at any given time, a FOI Request must be either open or closed as far as the council, is considered.

This FOI Request is asking about the situation when it is processed, and a snapshot should be taken, with the date of this recorded in the reply.

As most of this information must already be held electronically for administrative reasons by the council, it should not be onerous to provide it.

Please provide this electronically, preferably in an XLS spreadsheet.

Response to requests 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9

At this present time the information for the above requests is not held in a central database and as such cannot be easily generated.

In order to provide the relevant information the Council will have to the search the individual files for all 100 requests.

Under section 12 of the Act, the Council does not have to comply with a request for information if the cost of compliance is estimated to exceed the `appropriate limit' of £450, as specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (“the Fees Regulations”).

From a preliminary assessment, I have estimated that it will cost more than £450 (e.g. one person spending 2½ working days at a rate of £25 per hour in accordance with the Fees Regulations), the costs relate to the following activities:

The Council estimates the cost of complying with your request to be £625. This is based on a reasonable estimate of 25 hours (15 minutes per file)] at the prescribed rate of £25/hour. As such the Council is not obliged to provide the requested information.

However, the Council will provide the information upon receipt of the relevant fee of £625.

In accordance with section 9 of the Act, I will be unable to continue processing your request unless the fee is paid within 3 calendar months (i.e. by 28 April 2010). Your cheque or postal order in pounds sterling should be made payable to Harrow Council.

If I do not receive the payment fee by the specified date I shall take it that you do not wish to pursue this request and will consider the request closed.

The 20 working day timescale for providing the information you request is suspended until we receive payment from you.

Should the actual costs incurred not amount to £625 the Council will reimburse the difference.

Please note that this Fees Notice estimates the cost of meeting your request. It does not commit the Council to supply the information.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been handled, you can request an internal review of the Council's decision by writing to:

Stephen Dorrian, Senior Lawyer - Contracts and Information Law, Harrow Council, Legal & Governance Services, Civic Centre, Civic 1, HA1 2XF

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: +44(0) 1625 545700

Web site: https://forms.ico.gov.uk/enquiry.aspx

Yours sincerely

Isabella Ogo-Uzodike

Business Manager

Corporate Services

Harrow Council

Civic Centre, Station Road

Harrow HA1 2DU

Direct Line: 020 8420 9375

Harrow Council, PO Box 730, Civic Centre, Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2DU
Switchboard 020 8863 5611 email info@harrow.gov.uk web www.harrow.gov.uk

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