Gwent Police Appeal Procedure under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Gwent Police Freedom of Information Appeals Procedure has been
designed to give you an understanding of our process should you feel
dissatisfied with our response to a request you have submitted under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Who can appeal?
Anyone who has requested information from Gwent Police that has been dealt
with under the Freedom of Information Act can appeal. If you have requested
information and you are not satisfied with the way we have dealt with your
request, you can use the appeal process to have it looked at again. You will
have 60 days in which to lodge your appeal.
What can I appeal about?
You can appeal about anything which you feel has not been carried out in a
satisfactory manner. This can be for example, the amount of information
supplied, or the way exemptions were applied. You can also appeal about the
way a request was handled for example, the time it took to respond, or how
much help you were given to identify the information you required.
How do I appeal?
All appeals must be in writing and to deal with your appeal as quickly as
possible, it will help if you can give the reason why you are appealing and give
us as much information as you can about your original request. That will help
us to find our records on the request as quickly as possible. You may wish to
contact the FOI Officer prior to lodging an appeal in order to seek further
explanation concerning your request and the reason for any decision taken.
What happens to my appeal?
Once we have enough details to identify the request you are concerned
about, we will begin a review. We will look at every part of the request
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handling process as well as the decisions taken with regard to disclosure. The
Chief Information Officer will be responsible for the review. We
may need to get in touch with you during the review if clarification is required
in some areas. The appeal will be conducted with due regard to the Code of
Practice under Section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Once we have completed our review, we will send you a copy of the report of
the appeal findings. To take into account the more complicated cases we aim
to complete appeals within a
maximum of 2 months. However, in general we
aim to complete appeals within 20 working days.
If the appeal outcome finds that information should have been provided we
will supply it as soon as possible. If we believe after review that our original
response was correct, we will let you know of this outcome.
How can I get more information on appeals?
If you have any further questions about the appeal process, please contact
our Freedom of Information Officer on 01495 745366, or email
[Gwent Police request email]
We also publish the outcome of previous appeals and our performance
against our target for completing reviews. We monitor appeals to identify
trends.
What if I’m not satisfied after the appeal?
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your appeal you can refer the
matter to the Information Commissioner who may investigate on your behalf
It is the Information Commissioner who will decide whether to investigate or
not. If he does, we will make all the information available to the Information
Commissioner.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted via the following details:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700
Fax: 01625 524 510
Email: [email address]
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