Dear Sir or Madam,

Brent Council Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) request response,
Ref: 472001

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, URL of and
quote
therefrom below, please provide me with a copy of any information
or evidence held, such as Internal
Guidance/Memos/Emails/Procedures/Policies, or produced by Brent
Council that
indicates FOIA requests via http://www.whatdotheyknow.com, other
similar "sites", or directly via any person could be refused under
the FOIA on the basis that it:

1) "...forms part of a campaign"

as is claimed by Brent Council:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag...

Please advise on which section(s) of the FOIA or any related
Published in the Public domain guidance clearly states that a FOIA
request can be refused "outright" on the basis that it "...forms
part of a campaign"

Duty to provide advice and assistance. --------

Please help me as much as you can with this request as I am unable
to find anything in the FOIA about "...forms part of a campaign". I
request this help under Section 16 of the FOIA, concerning your
Duty to provide me with advice and assistance.

Means by which communication to be made ---------

Under Section 11 of the FOIA please supply me with the requested
information in electronic format, suitable for posting via the
email website service of http://www.whatdotheyknow.com

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, URL above,
it
implies that Brent Council "...is concerned" that "sites" such as
'what do
they know' could facilitate the making of requests which might
otherwise be refused. Please provide me with the names/a list of
these "sites" that Brent Council "...is concerned" about.

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, the
requester is
asked for their Passport or a Utility Bill, please advise which
Section of the FOIA makes such a request legitimate and or copy of
any information or evidence held, such as Internal
Guidance/Memos/Emails/Procedures/Polices, held or produced by Brent
Council
that indicates a Passport or Utility Bill can be requested and how
such a request would be compatible with the Data Protection Act, or
represents a form of common or good practice agreed formally by
Brent Council.

I have sent you a separate email that includes a household bill
that gives proof of my name.

Yours faithfully,

Ben Ingram

Dear Sir or Madam,

In consideration of your Section 16 of the Freedom of Information
Act (2000) duty to provide me with advice and assistance, please
advise me through my @whatdotheyknow.com email address whether or
not the copy of the household bill I sent you
<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...> is
adequate proof for me to receive and make valid information
disclosure requests via my [email address] (@whatdotheyknow.com)
email address?

In your reply to this advice request please confirm and state
explicitly that I have now fully complied with Section 8(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act (2000) for me to receive and make valid
information
disclosure requests via my [email address] (@whatdotheyknow.com)
email address?

Please reply promptly to this request for guidance and advice as
the 20 day deadline clock for your response is ticking.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 500048
====================================================

Dear Mr. Ingram

Thank you for your request for information received on 18 May 2009 asking
questions in connection with request 472001. We aim to respond to your
request within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Brent ITU

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Dear Brent Information Technology Unit,

I am not merely "asking questions", I am making requests for
information in connection with, amongst other things, your public
policy statements on the Freedom of Information Act.

Can you please reply to my request for advice which I sent along
with my information requests. A full history of my FOI advice
requests is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...

A full history of my FOI information requests is available on the
Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...

In your reply to this advice request please confirm and state
explicitly that I have now fully complied with Section 8 of the
Freedom of Information Act (2000) for me to receive and make valid
information disclosure requests via my [email address]
(@whatdotheyknow.com) email address?

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 499775
====================================================

Dear Mr. Ingram

Thank you for your email received today amending the above request. The
details have been added to your request and the clock has been re-started.

Yours sincerely

Brent ITU
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The use of Brent Council's e-mail system may be monitored and communications read in order to secure effective operation of the system and other lawful purposes.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your Reference: 499775

Apologies for any mis-understanding on my part, but I have not
amended any information request I was actually disputing your
representation that my request was merely about "asking questions",
this may be the case, but I consider my request was primarily a
request for information, not matter what formulation of words I
used to make it on the 15 May 2009.

Can you advise me on whether the household bill I submitted was
adequate proof of my name and that I have fully complied with
Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act?

I consider the 20 day clock started as a consequence of my 15 May
2009 information request.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

Dear Ben

Our reference 499775 refers to your request for information about Agency
Agreements.

This was received from email address
[email address]

I have checked the email address which was input into the request tracking
system in respect of this request and it is the same one as the request
was received from. The original acknowledgement appears in the correct
place on your website. The acknowledgement about the additional details
requested was sent from the same request which responds automatically to
the same email address so I cannot explain why the response has appeared
on the website in the correspondence relating to your request 'Campaign',
our reference 500048.

The acceptance of your proof of identity has been sent to the email
address from which same was received.

Stephen Williams
for Brent ITU

Floor 5
349-357 High Road
Wembley
HA9 6BZ

020 8937 1426

Ben Ingram To [email address]
<[FOI #12067 email]> cc
Subject Re: Freedom of Information
20/05/2009 11:36 request - Campaign

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your Reference: 499775

Apologies for any mis-understanding on my part, but I have not
amended any information request I was actually disputing your
representation that my request was merely about "asking questions",
this may be the case, but I consider my request was primarily a
request for information, not matter what formulation of words I
used to make it on the 15 May 2009.

Can you advise me on whether the household bill I submitted was
adequate proof of my name and that I have fully complied with
Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act?

I consider the 20 day clock started as a consequence of my 15 May
2009 information request.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please note I am not longer using the email account I sent a copy
of my household bill through(copy below). Please send all
correspondence to me at my http://www.whatdotheyknow.com address.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

-----Original Message-----
From: [email address]
To:
Sent: Mon, 18 May 2009 2:04 pm
Subject: Re: proof of name

Dear Mr Ingram

Further to your below email I am writing to advise that the
attached bill is sufficient proof of identity for the purposes of
the two requests you have made in your name recently. I will
acknowledge these separately.

Stephen Williams
FOIA & DPA Consultant
Brent ITU

Brent House
349-357 High Road
Wembley
HA9 6BZ

020 8937 1426

15/05/2009 22:31
To:[email address]
Subject:proof of name

Attached is a copy of my household bill, which contains sensitive
personal data (within the meaning of the Data Protection Act), for
proof of name purposes only, in connection with:

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...
&
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag...

and any other information request I may submit to the London
Borough of Brent.

Ben Ingram

Dear Sir or Madam,

This is a reminder that your response was due on June 15th.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

Information
Request
Cc
Bcc
Message Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 500048
====================================================

Dear Mr. Ingram,

I refer to the request for information you made on 18th May concerning
the Council's response to request 472001 and write to respond and to
apologise for the delay.

I deal with each of your questions below.

You asked firstly:

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, URL of and quote
therefrom below, please provide me with a copy of any information or
evidence held, such as Internal
Guidance/Memos/Emails/Procedures/Policies, or produced by Brent Council
that indicates FOIA requests via http://www.whatdotheyknow.com, other
similar "sites", or directly via any person could be refused under the
FOIA on the basis that
it:

1) "...forms part of a campaign"

as is claimed by Brent Council:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag...

Please advise on which section(s) of the FOIA or any related Published
in the Public domain guidance clearly states that a FOIA request can be
refused "outright" on the basis that it "...forms
part of a campaign"

This information is not held since there is no such section. But I am
afraid you have misread the letter since it does not say anything about
outright refusals. The intention of the response was to explain why the
request was invalid (real name not used) and to explain why this is of
concern. I am sorry if it failed to do this. The concern was that the
use of false names on sites like that in question could make it more
difficult for the authority to recognise requests which it might
otherwise judge to be vexatious when it was able to link the requests to
particular persons. This is not an objection to the legitimate use of
such sites and as you will know the authority responds to requests made
on the whatdotheyknow site where it has no reason to suspect the use of
a pseudonym.

I would point out that section 12 of the Act does employ the word
campaign but the response was not intended to refer to section 12 since
the regulations make its use dependent on there being similar content.

You also asked

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, URL above, it
implies that Brent Council "...is concerned" that "sites" such as 'what
do they know' could facilitate the making of requests
which might otherwise be refused. Please provide me with the names/a
list of these "sites" that Brent Council "...is concerned" about.

This information is not held. There is no such list and again this is to
misread the response which seeks to explain a concern about the
potential for misuse of such sites.

Finally you asked:

On the Brent Council FOIA request response Ref: 472001, the requester is
asked for their Passport or a Utility Bill, please
advise which Section of the FOIA makes such a request legitimate and or
copy of any information or evidence held, such as Internal
Guidance/Memos/Emails/Procedures/Polices, held or produced by Brent
Council that indicates a Passport or Utility Bill can be requested and
how such a request would be compatible with the Data Protection Act, or
represents a form of common or good practice agreed
formally by Brent Council.

Section 8 (1) of the Act states that a request for information must
state the name of the applicant. A link to the Commissioner's guidance
on this issue was provided with the response to request 472001. There is
no internal guidance on proof of identity in connection with FOI
requests but asking for such proofs is standard procedure in relation to
subject access requests. There is no breach of the Data Protection Act
as long as the data protection principles are complied with.

Please note that the information provided may be subject to copyright
and you may require further permission from the Council to re-use it. If
you require further guidance please write to the IT Standards Manager
(contact details below).

If you are dissatisfied with the response or how the Council has handled
your request you can complain to the Council by writing to the following
address: IT Standards Manager at Brent Council, Room 105, Brent Town
Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 9HD, telephone 020 8937 1402,
e-mail [Brent Borough Council request email]. It is the Council's policy to ensure that,
where practicable, your complaint is dealt with by someone who was not
involved in the original decision.

You also have a right of appeal about our decision to the Information
Commissioner, however, the Information Commissioner will not normally
consider an appeal until you have exhausted your rights of redress and
complaint to the Council. The Information Commissioner can be contacted
as follows:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF; Telephone: 01625 545 700,
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Stephen F Williams,
For Brent ITU
[email address]

Ben Ingram To FOI requests at Brent
<[FOI #12067 email]> Borough Council
<[Brent Borough Council request email]>
17/05/2009 15:16 cc
Subject Re: Freedom of
Information request -
Campaign

Dear Sir or Madam,

In consideration of your Section 16 of the Freedom of Information
Act (2000) duty to provide me with advice and assistance, please
advise me through my @whatdotheyknow.com email address whether or
not the copy of the household bill I sent you
<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...> is
adequate proof for me to receive and make valid information
disclosure requests via my [email address]
(@whatdotheyknow.com) email address?

In your reply to this advice request please confirm and state
explicitly that I have now fully complied with Section 8(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act (2000) for me to receive and make valid
information disclosure requests via my [email address]
(@whatdotheyknow.com) email address?

Please reply promptly to this request for guidance and advice as
the 20 day deadline clock for your response is ticking.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Ingram

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Dear Sir or Madam,

I cannot access the SAR form.docx you sent, can you send it again
without the X appended to the end of the file name?

Yours faithfully,

Ben Ingram

Saved in earlier word version

With compliments

Stephen Williams
FOI & DPA Consultant
Brent ITU

020 8937 1426

Floor 5
349-357 High Road
Wembley
HA9 6BZ

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