Cherie Booth complaint

Our ref: 8664/2010

23 June 2010

Dear Ganesh Sittampalam,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your email of the 19 June 2010, in which you asked for
information on the recent complaint made against Cherie Booth from the
Office for Judicial Complaints.

Your request is being handled under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA), and you will receive a response by 19 July
2010.

The FOIA does provide a number of exemptions. A qualified exemption
requires that before relying on it we must consider the public interest
test. If the information you have requested is covered by a qualified
exemption(s) under the FOIA, the Department is allowed to take longer
than 20 working days to respond. This is because in such circumstances
we are required to consider the public interest issues when deciding
whether or not to disclose the information requested.

If more time is needed to consider the public interest issues under a
qualified exemption(s), we will write to you and inform you of the
revised date you can expect to receive a response to your request.

If you have any queries about this request please do not hesitate to
contact us. Please quote ref: 8664/2010 in all future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Scarff - Administrative Support Officer (OJC)

Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC)
10th Floor, The Tower
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

DX 152380 Westminster 8

Tel: 0203 334 2269
Fax: 0203 334 2541
Website: www.judicialcomplaints.gov.uk

Restricted - This information is intended for the recipient only and
should not be copied to a wider audience without the permission of the
author.

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Freedom of Information Request FOI/65875/10

Data Access & Compliance Unit
Information Directorate
Zone 6 B
Post point 6.25
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

T 020 3334 3258
F 020 3334 2245
E [email address]

www.justice.gov.uk

24-JUN-10 Our Ref:FOI/65875/10

Dear Ganesh Sittampalam,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your correspondence of June 19, 2010, in which you asked
for information relating to Cherie Booth under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA) from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

You will receive a response from us by July 19, 2010. Your request has
been passed to the appropriate business unit within the MoJ, and they
will write to you with their decision by this date.

The FOIA does provide a number of exemptions. A qualified exemption
requires that before relying on it we must consider the public interest
test. If the information you have requested is covered by a qualified
exemption(s) under FOIA, the Department is allowed to take longer than
20 working days to respond. This is because in such circumstances we are
required to consider the public interest issues when deciding whether or
not to disclose the information requested.

If more time is needed to consider the public interest issues under a
qualified exemption(s), we will write to you and inform you of the
revised date you can expect to receive a response to your request.

If you have any queries regarding this request please do not hesitate to
contact us. Please quote ref: FOI/65875/10 in all future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Rhian Williams
Data Access and Compliance Unit

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please see the attached letter regarding your recent request.

Kind regards,

Mrs S Bailey BA(Hons)
Senior Caseworker
Office for Judicial Complaints
10th Floor Tower, 10.52
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Tel: 020 3334 3239

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Mr Sittapalam,

Please see the attached letter regarding your recent request.

Kind regards,

Mrs S Bailey BA(Hons)
Senior Caseworker
Office for Judicial Complaints
10th Floor Tower, 10.52
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Tel: 020 3334 3239

This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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I currently out of the office and will return on Monday 16 th August
2010. Your email will be dealt with upon my return. If your matter is
urgent and cannot await my return, please contact my colleagues Sarah
Huges on 020 3334 2840 or Pamela Herron on 020 3334 2516 if you require
further assistance.

Your email will not be forwarded.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please see the attached letter in response to your email of 13 August
2010.

Regards,

Mrs Sabrina Bailey BA(Hons)
Office for Judicial Complaints

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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

I acknowledge receipt of your email below.

Please address you request for an internal review to the Data Access and
Compliance Unit at the address provided in my recent letter. They will
take forward to concerns you have raised.

Kind regards,

Sabrina Bailey BA(Hons)
Office for Judicial Complaints

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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

It would be best if you contacted them directly. It would entirely
inappropriate for me to forward your message when the issue concerned is
my present handling of your request.

Their email address is provided in the letter I sent you, however, for
ease of reference I have listed the address again below.

Email: [email address]

Regards,

Sabrina Bailey BA(Hons)
Office for Judicial Complaints

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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

If you have having difficulty emailing your concerns, I would suggest
that you write to DACU direct at the address provided.

Regards,

Sabrina Bailey BA(Hons)
Office for Judicial Complaints

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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

I acknowledge receipt of your email below.

Despite my reservations concerning this matter, I will forward your
initial email to DACU on this occasion. However, as this office is
separate from DACU and not linked to their work area, I would suggest
that any further matters you wish to raise concerning your internal
review should be directed to DACU direct rather than through this office
as a medium.

Regards,

Sabrina Bailey BA(Hons)
Office for Judicial Complaints

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Internal Review IR/66746/10

Data Access & Compliance Unit
Information Directorate
Zone 6 B
Post point 6.25
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

T 020 3334 5493
F 020 3334 2245
E [email address]

www.justice.gov.uk

18-AUG-10 Our Ref:IR/66746/10

Dear Ganesh Sittampalam,

Thank you for your correspondence of August 18, 2010, in which you asked
for an Internal Review into handling of your request for information
with reference number FOI/ 65875 (Old reference).

Your request for an Internal Review is being handled in accordance with
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be passed to the Unit that
will carry out this process.

You will be contacted separately by the person conducting the review but
in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any
queries. Please quote Ref: IR/66746/10 in all future correspondence.

Yours sincerely,

Darren Over
(Sent on behalf of Roger Davies)
Data Access and Compliance Unit

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Ganesh Sittampalam

Please find attached the response to your Freedom of Information request
(ref: 65875) and copies of the documents that are eligible for disclosure
in accordance with the FOIA.

Regards,

Sarah Hughes
Senior Casework Team Manager
Office for Judicial Complaints
Tel: 0203 334 2840
email: [email address]

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is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy
all
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could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
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by e-mail.

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Thank you for your email dated 11 September regarding the response that
you have received in relation to your request for information under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Internal Review that I was carrying out, was with regard to your email
of 18 August in which you requested an Internal Review into delays that
you were experiencing in receiving a response to your request.

Your most recent email, is asking for a review into MoJ's decision to
apply exemptions to the release of the information that you had requested.

This will be dealt with as a new Internal Review request.

Your request will be handled in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and will be passed to the business unit that will
carry out this process.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries. I will use the same
reference number for this request as for the review into delays i.e.
IR/66746/10.

Yours sincerely

R A Davies
Roger Davies | Internal Review and Appeals Officer
Data Access & Compliance Unit | Ministry of Justice 6th Floor, point 6.23
| 102 Petty France | London | SW1H 9AJ
Tel: 020 3334 5493
E-mail: [email address]

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Dear Mr Sittampalam,

I am continuing to review the way in which your Freedom of Information
request was handled and the basis of the original decision.

I will write to you again when I have completed my investigations.

Yours sincerely

R A Davies
Roger Davies | Internal Review and Appeals Officer
Data Access & Compliance Unit | Ministry of Justice 6th Floor, point 6.23
| 102 Petty France | London | SW1H 9AJ
Tel: 020 3334 5493
E-mail: [email address]

From: Ganesh Sittampalam
[[1]mailto:[FOI #38978 email]]
Sent: 11 September 2010 21:56
To: Over, Darren (ARU)
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Cherie Booth
complaint

Dear Mr Over,

Ref: IR/66746/10

Now that I have finally received a substantive response to my
request, I would like to additionally request an internal review of
this response, on the grounds listed below.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

(1) In each case where you have claimed an exemption, you have not
stated what the information that is exempt actually is. You should
provide a general description of each piece of information you do
hold but are witholding, unless the very fact of its existence is
exempt, in which case you should "neither confirm nor deny" that
you hold further information in regard to the relevant
exemption(s).

(2) In each case apart from s31 where you have claimed an
exemption, you have claimed it after the 20 working day statutory
limit.

(3) In each case where a public interest test applies, you have
introduced a number of arguments I believe to be invalid on the
"against releasing side":

(a) You claim that officials and judges would be less likely to
assist if they thought their advice were likely to be disclosed.
The Commissioner and Tribunal have previously rejected this kind of
argument with respect to advice provided by senior civil servants,
and I would suggest that judges occupy a similar or even stronger
position in terms of being expected to act independently.

(b) You claim that the target of complaints would not engage as
fully with the process. This seems ridiculous as not doing so would
weaken their defence.

(c) You claim that the complainants would not engage as fully with
the process. Even if true in some cases, in this one the complaints
were generated by people like the National Secular Society who
would very much want publicity for the complaint.

(d) You claim that disclosure could affect the position of judges
in the courtroom. Even if true, in this case the fact of the
complaint (that Cherie Booth displayed bias towards religious
people) is well known so it is hard to know how disclosure of
specific details of the investigation could worsen this position.
In fact I would argue that the possibility of disclosed information
being used in application for a judge to be recused is a factor in
favour of disclosure; it is in the best interests of the
administration of justice that all parties to a case have full
information about any problematic behaviour by a particular judge
so that they can be confident of a fair hearing. If the information
is irrelevant or does not suggest any problem with the judge, then
any application would be rejected in any case.

(e) Your claims about the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice
being "best placed to ensure that the public interest is reassured"
are irrelevant to the handling of a FOI request. The public
interest arguments must be made directly, not by appeal to some
other authority.

(4) I also disagree with the application of specific exemptions,
for the following reasons:

s21: You have not explained how I can get the information that is
in the public domain.

s32: This exemption only applies if the information is held "only
by virtue of" being court records and can only apply if the
litigation in question has actually commenced. What litigation do
they refer to and have you verified that the OJC does not hold them
for any other reason as well?

s36: You should supply evidence of who the qualified person was and
when they supplied their opinion. If this was outside the 20
working day period, there have been a number of Information
Tribunal judgements that state that this opinion cannot be valid
unless produced within the statutory period (EA/2009/0035,
EA/2008/0092, EA/2009/0081).

s40: What is the role of the people whose personal data has been
withheld? If they are staff members of public bodies, they would
only normally be protected from identification if they are both
junior and non-public facing staff. For other people the validity
of the exemption would depend very much on the specific
circumstances of the personal data.

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I am out of the office until Monday 25 October .
My emails are not forwarded.

For urgent matters, please contact [email address]
or [email address] Tel No. 02033345173. or
[email address]

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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<<Ganesh Sittampalam Internal Review Final.doc>> Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please find attached the result of my internal review.

Regards

Steven Casanova
Office for Judicial Complaints
10th Floor The Tower
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Tel 0203 334 2555
Fax 0203 334 2541

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