FAO Mr A Peasgill

c/o [email address]

Dear Mr Peasgill

Further to my letter of 26 October 2008I am writing in response to your request for information.  As you are aware your correspondence has been treated as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Please find below all the information in the category requested.

If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled you should write to the Internal Compliance Team at the address below or e-mail [email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40 working days of receipt by you of this response.  Any such request received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please write to the Case Reception Team, at the address below or visit the `Complaints' section of our website to make a Freedom of Information Act complaint or a Data Protection Act request for assessment online.

A copy of our review procedure is attached for your information.

Yours sincerely

Richard Kerr

Assistant Internal Compliance Manager.

I have answered your questions in the order in which you raised them:

1.      How many complaints have been made to the Information Commissioner as regards Cheshire Constabulary under:

A) The Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 5

B) The Data Protection Act 1998 - 29

C) How many complaints have been found against Cheshire Constabulary under the Freedom of Information Act 2000? See FOI outcome table below

D) How many negative assessments of the processing of personal data at Cheshire Constabulary have been found by the Information Commissioner? See DP outcome table below

FOI Outcomes

DP Outcomes

DN = Decision Notice. 

2.      How many complaints have been made to the Information Commissioner as regards Lancashire Constabulary under:

A) The Freedom of Information Act 2000 - 22

B) The Data Protection Act 1998 - 61

C) How many complaints have been found against Cheshire Constabulary under the Freedom of Information Act 2000? See FOI outcome table below.

D) How many negative assessments of the processing of personal data at Cheshire Constabulary have been found by the Information Commissioner? See DP outcome table below.

FOI Outcomes

DP Outcomes

3.

Lastly does the Information Commissioner collect information as to

the effectiveness of internal review procedures at all public

authorities. I ask this because I have made very many FoIA 2000

requests and have not had one initial response altered in any way

via the internal review procedure at any public authority to date.

The answer to question 3 is no. It would not be practicable to collect this data for all public authorities subject to the Act and even if it where, the Commissioner would then have to assess every refusal against every internal review outcome in order to be objective and consistent. In addition, repeated upholding of original decisions at internal reviews does not necessarily indicate an ineffective review procedure. Indeed, in the absence of specific evidence to the contrary, an argument could be made that a sequence of such decisions indicates high levels of FOI awareness and decision-making capability at the public authority.

Where the Commissioner receives a valid section 50 complaint, he does not as a matter of course collect information on whether the internal review outcome was different from the original decision. However, should he consider a complaint that involved an obviously inappropriate refusal and internal review, he may comment in any subsequent decision notice or raise the matter directly with the authority in accordance with his Enforcement Strategy (copy attached).

You may however be interested in some of the performance tables included in the Third Annual Freedom of Information Report 2007 produced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and available online at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/foi-report-2007-final-web.pdf

In particular, I would draw your attention to Table 6 on pages 24 and 25 which records the outcomes of internal reviews (where known) for those public authorities monitored by the MoJ.

In handling FoIA section 50 complaints (and through other sources such as public authority web pages), the Commissioner does collect information on internal review procedures, although this is usually related to delays or the number of stages in the procedures. You may find the attached information useful in this regard.

I have attached further information which I hope you may find useful.