Susan Orrell

City Solicitor

P.O. Box 532

Town Hall

Albert Square

Manchester

M60 2LA

DX 714441 Manchester 1

By Email

T Thomas [FOI #3256 email]

Dear Sir or Madam

Request for Information - Reference Number:  CEX/7JXDXM

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council (the Council) on 29 September 2008 and has been considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoIA).

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your request.

You asked how many requests for information under the FoIA has the council received and how many have times has the council failed to respond within the statutory 20 day period?

Since January 2005 the Council has received 2008 complex requests for information which have been considered under the provision of the FoIA. Please note that the Council defines a complex request to be of a non routine business nature, a request that mentions FoIA or has been submitted on the Council's access form.

Records show that on 398 occassions a response was issued later than the statutory timescales provided for in the FoIA.

Please note if you are not satisfied with this response you may ask for an internal review. If you wish to complain you should contact Lynn Evans, Information Compliance Officer ([Manchester City Council request email]) in the first instance. Your complaint will be considered by a senior officer who has not already been involved with this response. If you require more information about the Council's access to information complaints procedure this can be downloaded from http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200031&documentID=1322&pageNumber=3

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review has been undertaken, you have a right to apply to the Information Commissioner (IC) for a decision. The IC will normally expect you to exhaust our complaints machinery before considering your complaint.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Please remember to quote the above reference number in any future correspondence.

Yours sincerely

Michelle Chard

Head of Democratic Services