Follow this request

There are 2 people following this request

Offensive? Unsuitable?

Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid for FOI purposes (read more).

If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators

Report this request

Act on what you've learnt

Similar requests

More similar requests

Event history details

Are you the owner of any commercial copyright on this page?

Blair & Murdoch, papers related to FoI enquiry about their meetings

Michael McCarthy made this Freedom of Information request to Cabinet Office

The request was refused by Cabinet Office.

From: Michael McCarthy

28 January 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to see the documents which specify which out of the
five questions -
• Can the request be seen as obsessive?
• Is the request tantamount to harassing the authority or causing
distress to staff?
• Would complying with the request impose a significant burden?
• Is the request designed to cause disruption or annoyance?
• Does the request lack any serious purpose or value?
- drawn up by the Office of the Information Commissioner for
judging whether a FoI request might reasonably be judged
"vexatious" was deemed to justify refusing to release papers
generated by an earlier FoI request for the records of exchanges
between Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch.

Yours etc.,
Michael McCarthy

Link to this

Cabinet Office

30 January 2009

Dear Mr McCarthy,

Thank you for your email. The Cabinet Office has completed an internal
review of your request as you asked. If you remain unhappy with the
handling of your internal review request for information you have the
right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Details for contacting the Information Commissioner were provided in
your internal review response. However, for your ease of reference I
have provided them again below:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Kind Regards,

Rebecca Kingston
Freedom of Information Team
Cabinet Office

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: Michael McCarthy

3 February 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

If there exists any justification in the FoI Act for this implicit
refusal by the Cabinet Office to disclose, as requested, which of
the five admissible grounds for declaring an information request
"vexatious" was deemed to apply in my case, I invite you to cite
it. Otherwise, I expect you to respond to my question, as is my
right under the FoI Act, and specify precisely which of these five
grounds you propose to rely on.

Yours etc.
Michael McCarthy

Link to this

Cabinet Office

4 February 2009

Dear Mr McCarthy,

Thank you for your email. However, as I said in my previous email the
Cabinet Office has carried out an internal review, and if you remain
unhappy with the response you should take your complaint up with the
ICO. I do not have anything further to add to the response to your
internal review.

Regards,

Rebecca Kingston
Freedom of Information Team
Cabinet Office

show quoted sections

Link to this

From: Michael McCarthy

9 February 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been in contact with the Information Commissioner's Office,
and have been assured that there is no reason why I should not be
given clarification of the grounds on which an information request
is deemed "vexatious".

Presumably some specific ground, rather than the mere intent as
previously to stonewall a legitimate request, was in the mind of
someone at the Cabinet Office when this request was so deemed. If
so, kindly disclose it without further delay, and then we can all
judge how plausible it appears.

Yours etc.,

Michael McCarthy

Link to this

Cabinet Office

17 February 2009

Mr McCarthy,

The Cabinet Office has nothing further to add to the internal review
response provided to you. If you are not content with the Cabinet
Office's response please contact the Information Commissioner's Office
(ICO) directly.

The ICO can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Regards,

Rebecca Kingston
Freedom of Information Team
Cabinet Office

show quoted sections

Link to this

Michael McCarthy left an annotation (16 April 2009)

A complaint about the Cabinet Office's refusal to divulge the requested information has been made to the Information Commissioner.

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Cabinet Office only: