Contempts

Dear House of Commons,

Please provide me with an electronic copy of Chapter 15 of 'Erskine
May' ("Contempts").

Before you slap a 'Section 21' refusal notice on me, I should point
out the Information Commissioner's Freedom of Information Act
Awareness Guidance No. 6 clearly states, "There will, of course, be
some cases where the fact that there is a charge for information
may mean that it is not reasonably accessible by the applicant. For
instance, a public authority may be asked for information contained
in its annual report. It may not be reasonable to require the
applicant to purchase a copy of the report if the request is only
for a small amount of the information contained in it."

Yours faithfully,
Steve Elibank

Dear House of Commons,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of House of Commons's
handling of my FOI request 'Contempts'.

As my initial request from yesterday pointed out (and as I would
expect you to know, since you are a professional FOI officer) the
Information Commissioner has made absolutely explicit that if an
applicant requests a very small portion of a larger work, which is
only currently accessible on means of a large payment, it would not
necessarily be reasonably accessible.

I contend that this particular chapter is not reasonably
accessible, since it is only accessible on payment also for the
other umpteen chapters, and this precisely parallels the example
given by the ICO in the paper I cited in my initial email.

Your refusal notice completely fails to account for this aspect of
the situation which I explained in my request, potentially in
breach of your obligations under Section 16 of the Act.

I therefore look forward to receiving immediate confirmation that
you will carry out an Internal Review; to receiving the results of
that Review within 20 working days as stipulated by the ICO; and,
ultimately, to receiving the information I requested to begin with.

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

Steve Elibank

Dear Mr Walker,

By yet again failing to address my point in regard to the
Information Commissioner's guidance regarding the 'reasonably
available' exemption, you have not only acted very foolishly, but
also violated Section 16 of the Act, and earned yourselves a
complaint to the ICO. Well done.

Steve Elibank