"Audit Commission report on Poor housing" supplied by West-Lindsey District Council

Dear Sir or Madam,

Data Protection Officer for West-Lindsey District Council.

Freedom of Information Act 2000.

1) I would like to request under the freedom of Information Act, a
full copy of the Audit Commission's report following the Inspection
carried out in January 09, this Inspection as per the statement
supplied on the BBC by Ms Ann Burnett, lead Housing Inspector for
the Audit Commission.

2) Specify in detail the criteria requirement & grading rules for
this Inspection process.

3) Specify in detail, the score achieved by West-Lindsey District
Council for this Audit Commission Inspection, please also include
all previous Inspections relevant to this Inspection subject.
Please include dates of all Audit Commission Inspections & ratings
achieved by West-Lindsey District Council to date?

4) Specify who is / was, the responsible official/s for Housing
provision by West-Lindsey District Council for the last 10 years.
Specify the name/s, position/s held within West Lindsey District
Council, and length / time position/s held?

5) What is the cost of providing and administering Social Housing
responsibilities specifically by West-Lindsey District Council?

6) Please specify in detail the Statutory Regulations and
Responsibilities applicable to this subject and Audit Commission
Report for this District Council.

Where West-Lindsey District Council applies exemptions to Freedom
of Information requested under this Act, then include relevant
specific regulations & legislation in full detail on exemption/s
applied.

Finally, I will submit further Freedom of Information requests on
this subject at a later date .This I hope will assist West-Lindsey
to now fulfil its requirements under the above Act without delays.

Regrettably to date Request No. 489 is still awaiting the Internal
Review procedure, also Information offered by West-Lindsey from
that request is outstanding.

What is the correct procedural timescale on Internal Review
Requests at West-Lindsey District Council?

Yours faithfully,

Mr B P Wagstaff

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 West Lindsey District
Council's (WLDC) handling of my FOI request '"Audit Commission
report on Poor housing" supplied by West-Lindsey District Council'.

This Request is reasonable and not vexatious as claimed, for the
following reasons;

1) I have reviewed West-Lindsey District Councils Publications
Scheme as advised relating to the Information requested.
Regrettably this Audit Commission Report, as well as previous
reports are not available for access by members of the public, this
on the WLDC’s adopted Information Commissioners (ICO) publication
Scheme, as viewed on the 24th June 2009.

2)I believe information from the Audit Commission, a public
watchdog reporting on this District Council, could reasonably have
been expected to be included within the 7 categories advised by the
(ICO) and envisaged as being available on the publication Scheme
for the public to access.
The supply of Information through WLDC’s Publication Scheme would
have made Information available with a beneficial & immediate
effect to the public, without any distress or extra burden to staff
as stated in (WLDC’s) recent letter.
The lack of accessible Information, therefore necessitating
individual requests to be submitted and made through the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
This places also, inappropriate distress and a burden on all
members of the public, including as in our case vulnerable members
of the public, wanting fair and open access to information without
the burden of having to continually use this Councils, Freedom of
Information Act obligations.

3)To assist this public authority on its Information supply, on
Item (1) Ref: my request of the 18th June 09, the Audit Commission
when contacted sent this requested report with immediate effect. I
would like to give my thanks to the executive member for his
professional approach to public members & concerns on available
access to Information when in the public Interest. I have now been
supplied The 40 page Audit Commission report Information openly as
requested, this regrettably refused by this Council
inappropriately.

West Lindsey’s Data protection Officer said:

“The Volume, frequency, and similarity of the requests are causing
distress to staff”

I have not submitted frequent, similar, or a volume of Freedom of
Information requests on this Subject to West-Lindsey District
Council, so the (WLDC) statement provided above to this request, is
both inaccurate, regarding similarity, also incorrect as to
frequency, on Volume of requests, this being governed completely as
any FOI requests, by the availability and content of Information on
WLDC’s adopted (ICO) Publication Scheme.

Any distress could be simply alleviated for (WLDC) staff and more
importantly the public trying to access Information, by applying
Information fully & openly through this Council’s Publication
Scheme obligations, as envisaged by the (ICO)when Councils adopt
there model publications Scheme conditions.

However all Information apart from the January 2009 report item (1)
now received, is still awaited please, as per (WLDC) FOI Ref: No
597 made to West-Lindsey District Council.

I look forward to receiving notification of due process to the
requested Internal Review from West-Lindsey District Council.

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

Yours sincerely,

Mr B P Wagstaff

Dear FOI, 21st July 2009

Thank you for your letter dated 17th July 2009.

I can re-confirm that I have received from the Audit Commissions
office a copy of The Audit Commissions report, on West Lindsey
District Council's "2009 Strategic Housing Service”, sent with
immediate effect due to concerns by the Audit Commission on access
being denied inappropriately by West Lindsey District Councils
Information unit to a member of the public affected by the issues
raised in this 2009 Housing Service report.

This Information had correctly been requested under a Freedom of
Information 2000 act request on the 18th June 2009, WLDC Ref No:
597, this required as access again was unavailable at the time
through WLDC adopted ICO Publication Scheme or Website facility,
regrettably then further blocked using section 14 (1) of the FOI
Act as per WLDC Document, 22nd June 09, No-597 Mr Wagstaff.pdf.

This FOI act Information request is required as indicated in my
response to WLDC dated the 25th June 2009, clearly notifying WLDC
that all Information apart from Item (1) was required. This sent
also requesting an Internal Review & addressing West-Lindsey
District Councils comments by its (DPO)Data Protection Officer, a
Mrs Susan Harrison, refusing access to information, stating this
reasonable request, as vexatious in WLDC letter dated the 22nd June
09.

This was challenged in the 25th June 2009 document submitted, and
requesting the Internal Review process.

Regarding West Lindsey District Council's CMT (Core Management
Team), please provide attending & participating Council personnel
details, specific to my Internal Reviews in order that full
information can be provided to the Information Commissioner office.

Please supply in detail, the findings of the CMT on the statement
by WLDC’s Data protection Officer, that FOI request No 597 was
vexatious. Again this would assist, subject to a complaint
requiring to be
submitted.

A clear response to these reasonable clarification requests would
alleviate, alarm, distress, and time to members of the public, and
also West-Lindsey District Council’s paid Information staff; it
would also restrict the need as at present for FOI requests when
seeking clarity of WLDC's FOI process.

The Freedom of Information act 2000 request, wldc Ref: 597,
submitted to this council on the 18th June 09, is late and breaking
the law.

Please find the link provided to assist & view the passage of this
FOI 2000 act request.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/au...

Yours sincerely,

Mr B P Wagstaff