Dear Sir or Madam,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Both the Scottish Information Commissioner [a] and the Information
Tribunal [b] publish lists of the FOI/EIR complaint/appeal cases
they are currently reviewing.

[a]
<<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appli...>>

[b] <<http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/cu...>>

As I've been unable to find an equivalent list on your website,
please could provide me with a list of the current FOI/EIR cases
being investigated by the Information Commissioner. Depending on
the format/structure you may hold the data, I would prefer to see
the name of the Public Authority, the date the case was received,
the type of request (FOI/DPA), and a synopsis (or title) of the
case.

Any assistance you can provide in letting me know how you hold or
structure this data would be appreciated in order to avoid the need
to create new information to satisfy this request.

Yours faithfully,

Alex Skene

Our Reference: FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

Thank you for your correspondence dated 10 July 2008 asking for a list
of all current FOI/EIR case.

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We will respond by 7 August 2008 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Information Commissioners Office

01625 545760

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

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FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

I write further to your correspondence dated 10 July 2008 which as you
are aware we have treated as a request for information under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.

This is the FOI caseload as at June 08. On some references N/A is listed
as the Public Authority, this is because these cases which were received
in June 08 and are still waiting for the parties to be added to the
case. Our casework management system which holds all the complaints we
receive under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental
Information Regulations does not record a synopsis of the nature of the
complaint but under which section of the Act the complaint is being made
and this is included in the attached spreadsheet. We therefore do not
hold that information.

I hope this information is helpful, However, If you are dissatisfied
with the response you have received and wish to request a review of our
decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled you
should write to the Internal Compliance Team at the address below or
e-mail [email address]
<mailto:[email address]>

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of
the Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further
right of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory
complaint handler under the legislation. To make such an application,
please write to the Senior Complaints Resolution Manager, Complaints
Resolution Team at the address below or e-mail [email address]
<mailto:[email address]> .

A copy of our review procedure is attached.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Information Commissioners Office

01625 545760

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

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Dear Mr Skene

Review of the ICO response to your FOI request for the current ICO case
list

FOI/991

In light of the comments made about our response to the above request
the ICO has decided to review its response to the part of your request
for "a synopsis (or title) of the case"

As Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for FOI Policy I will be
undertaking the review, I will contact you again shortly with the
outcome. In the meantime if you have any further comments you would
like to make about the request please contact me.

Regards

Steve

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Dear Steve,

Ref FOI/991

Many thanks for your email of 18th July. I presume you are
referring to the comments made on the BBC Open Secrets blog
<<http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/2...>>.
I'd like to point out that the comments quoted on the blog relating
to how you handled the case were not made by me.

If your review finds that you you are able to disclose some of the
synopses or titles (ie the subject matter) of the cases, especially
the very old outstanding ones from 2005, that would be very much
appreciated.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see this kind of information
published and kept up-to-date on your website (as per the Scottish
IC) as it really increases the visibility of the FOI process.

Kind regards,

Alex Skene

Dear Mr Skene,

I have now completed my review of your FOI request FOI/991. I have
concluded that the original response stating the ICO held no information
that fell within the part of your request for a synopsis/title of each
case in the current caseload was incorrect. The ICO does hold
information that would fall within your request.

Most of this information is held in weekly produced spreadsheets, held
outside our case management system. This covers cases received between
August 2006 to the date of your request. Rather than send you over 100
spreadsheets we will collate this information into a single spreadsheet,
as we acknowledge there is also some wider public interest in seeing the
information and it will be more readable in this form. It will also be
possible to retrieve and extract the information for the older cases
January 2005 - August 2006. I expect us to be able to send you a full
response in the next two weeks.

The ICO acknowledges that there is a public interest in seeing the
information you requested on a regular basis and the ICO is actively
considering how to make this information available on the website.

Regards

Steve

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Dear Mr Skene,

We are currently retrieving and collating the information in response to your request, as set out in my response to your internal review.

Having started this work we have found that data for 500 cases has not been recorded in the spreadsheets in the way we had assumed and therefore we will have to extract and retrieve much more of the information held directly from our case management system, this process involves a member of staff looking through each case file to retrieve/extract the subject recorded in the case documents. We have already spent over two and half days retrieving the information, in excess of the cost limit £450 (18 hours x £25/hr) as set out in the FOI Fees Regulations. In light of this we are now not obliged to comply with the request by virtue of section 12 of the Act but we still wish to supply you with the information as we have acknowledged there is a wider public interest in the information and it would not be best practice to refuse to supply the information because of some problems in the way we previously recorded the information. We have now improved the way we record this information.

It will therefore take us a little longer to send you the information; we now aim to send it by the middle of September.

Regards

Steve

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Dear Steve,

Ref FOI/991

Thank you very much for the update, and I very much appreciate the
extra effort you and your staff are having to make for this
request.

Kind regards,

Alex

Our Reference: FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

Further to my email dated 14 August 2008.

We have now produced a summary for each currently open and eligible
complaint we are dealing with under the Freedom of Information Act and
the Environmental Information Regulations, which is attached. This
summary includes the:

* Case reference number;

* name of the public authority involved

* whether the complaint relates to Freedom of Information or
Environmental Information;

* team the complaint is currently assigned to and whether the
case has been assigned to a case officer for consideration

* date the complaint was deemed eligible for consideration by
the ICO (this will usually be the date it was received unless it was not
properly made and we needed to ask for further information to determine
its eligibility);

* summary of the information requested from the public authority;
and

* the sector in which the public authority operates.

We have now pulled together these case summaries into a single report
showing all the eligible FoI and EIR complaints currently open at the
end of June 2008. We intend to update and publish this report on a
monthly basis in the near future.

It is also important to note that the complaints listed on this report
have only been deemed 'eligible' for consideration by the ICO in line
with our duty under the FoIA and the EIRs. No determination has been
made as to whether any breach of legislation/regulations has occurred.
This will only be confirmed when our case officers conclude their
investigations.

I hope that this information is of help and assistance.

Yours sincerely

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

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

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

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Dear Steve,

Thank you very much for providing this information, it is much
appreciated, especially given that you and your office have spent
much time above and beyond the statutory limits of the FOIA. Please
pass on my thanks to those who have spent time compiling the
information.

Kind regards,

Alex Skene