assessment centres, Specialist Authorities (Home Office 13/03/09)

Dear Sir or Madam,

As of today and further to the letter sent to Local Authority Chief
Executives and Directors of Children's Services - 28 August 2008 -
UASC Reform Programme - Becoming a Specialist Authority, [1] can
you please email me an electronic copy of the following
information:

1. A list of Local Authorities "selected" to be Specialist
Authorities

2. A summary list of any information held that outlines anything
associated with the setting up of any regional "need and age"
assessment centres.

3. The full names of any representative who has attended any of the
meetings outlined in said letter. These individuals should already
be well known and as Senior officials of Public Authorities,
disclosing this information should be free from exemption.

Please provide the requested information, via email in electronic
format, to my @whatdotheyknow.com address, in the original MS Word
or plain text format if available, or alternatively in PDF format,
only if MS Word or plain text formats are not available. If you
only have paper (hard copy) copies please provide a Digital Photo
Copier Scanned version in PDF format. This will help ensure the
information is accessible for use with a Screen Reader or
Magnifier. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader>

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

[1] Copy of letter sent to Local Authority Chief Executives - 28
August 2008 - UASC Reform Programme - Becoming a Specialist
Authority
<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pi...>

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's
handling of my FOI request 'assessment centres, Specialist
Authorities (Home Office 13/03/09)'.

This request is currently overdue a response from Home Office. By
law, the response had to be prompt but no later than 15 April 2009

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/as...

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

RE: assessment centres, Specialist Authorities (Home Office
13/03/09)
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/as...

Can you please acknowledge this information and a request for an
independent review. I also write to advise that I have made a
complaint to the ICO due to your abject failures with regards this
request.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

I note the UKBA was and is a part of the Home Office therefore the
applicable date for my request was 13 March 2009

As shown here:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/as...

Please arrange for an Internal Review for your failure to offer me
advise under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act that
maybe the wrong Home Office @homeoffice.gov.uk email address was
being used.

But as the applicable Public Authority is a part of the Home Office
you are well over 60 days late with regards my request.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

Confirmation that I have received your letter (copy below). I
Confirm I require an Internal Review to be conducted on the basis
of said letter, which you sent to me via: TEAM@ whatdotheyknow.com

Your letter:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dear J Cassidy,

Freedom of Information Request - 11774 - Unaccompanied Asylum
Seeking Children (UASC)

I am writing in relation to your FOI request dated 13 March 2009
about Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. This request was
received in this office on 5th May 2009. I have assessed your
request and have decided to decline it on the basis that it is
vexatious. Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides
that the Home Office is not obliged to comply with such requests.

It has been decided that this request is vexatious because of the
cumulative burden of answering the large number of requests about
USAC reform that you have submitted within a relatively short
period of time. These have impacted heavily upon the small unit
which deals with this area of work to the extent that they are
disrupting its work to an unreasonable extent. I am also writing to
inform you that all your requests received in this office after 5th
May 2009 and currently in our possession are also being refused
under section 14(1), as will any subsequent requests which fit into
the same pattern as those already received. As permitted by section
17(6) of the FOI Act, should such further requests be received, we
will not be writing to inform you of this decision.

The UK Border Agency is fully committed to fulfilling its
obligations under the FOI Act; however in the circumstances we have
reluctantly decided to rely on the above provisions. I appreciate
that you will probably have been unaware of the impact that your
requests have been having, and would like to stress that this
decision does not mean that we will never answer further requests
on this subject from you. However if we are to do so you will need
to submit requests in a more considered and manageable way, which
does not impose such a burden on the unit concerned.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an
independent internal review of our handling of your request by
submitting your complaint within two months to the below address
quoting reference FOIR 11774.

Head of Information Access Policy Team
(Freedom of Information)
11th floor – short corridor
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR9 2BY

During the independent review the department’s handling of your
information request will be reassessed by staff who were not
involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain
dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of
complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

I am sorry that I am unable to assist you further in this matter.

Yours sincerely

Jerry Harland
UASC Reform Programme

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Home Office,

Thank you for sending the response to me directly, but it have been
more appropriate if it was sent to me first. As most of my
information requests had been simply ignored and I got no advice on
same, I could have prioritised some, but as the standard 20 day
waiting period often elapsed by more than 40 days, I had no way of
knowing whether your lack of acknowledgement was deliberate or
designed to frustrate legitimate requests for information.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Home Office,

Further to guidance sought from the Ministry of Justice can you
advise whether you arguing in your letter that you will no longer
answering any information request I make, not on the basis that
they may be vexatious, but that you are unable to devote any Home
Office resources to them? Noting:

"Vexatious requests

Under section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, public
authorities are not obliged to comply with vexatious requests.

Whether a request is vexatious is determined by the information
requested, not the person making the request. An individual can
make as many requests for information as he or she wishes. Each of
their requests must be considered on a case-by-case basis (although
it may be appropriate to reject substantially similar requests
under section 14(2),"
http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/foi-p...

Please also pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's
handling of my FOI request 'assessment centres, Specialist
Authorities (Home Office 13/03/09)'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/as...

To prevent protracted correspondence please confirm that you will
deal with my request for an Internal Review?

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ),

Thank you for your confirmation, can you confirm that this review
will also be of all the information requests mentioned in your
refusal letter? Or do you require me to submit/resubmit a separate
Internal Review request for each one so refused in your letter?

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J