Democracy Live and Parliament
Dear House of Commons,
According to the FAQ on the BBC's Democracy Live website: "At the moment, we do not have permission to enable the embedding of video from the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Discussions are continuing with officials at Westminster."[1]
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/g...
(I suspect that this answer hasn't been updated since the BBC launched the site last November owing to the fact that it now appears to be possible to embed House of Commons videos.)
Under the Freedom of Information Act, please can I be sent details of discussions and agreements held between the BBC's Democracy Live team and officials at Westminster.
In particular, I'd like to know about:
(1) Any written terms of service.
(2) Arrangements for supplying the video feeds to the Democracy Live project
(3) Arrangements for supplying early versions of the Hansard transcript
(4) Whether any officials make use of Democracy Live and its innovative 80% accuracy speech-to-text search system and have provided feedback.
(5) When was the agreement settled that allowed for embedding of Parliamentary videos?
Yours faithfully,
Julian Todd
Dear Mr Todd
Thank you for your request for information dated 17 August 2010, received by us on the same day, which is copied below.
We will endeavour to respond to your request promptly but in any case within 20 working days i.e. on or before 15 September 2010.
If you have any queries about your request, please use the request number quoted in the subject line of this email.
Yours sincerely
Vanessa Cubillo
Freedom of Information Assistant
Dear Mr Todd,
Thank you for your request for information which is copied below.
You asked for 'the details
of discussions and agreements held between the BBC's Democracy Live
team and officials at Westminster.' No such information is held by the House of Commons.
In response to your questions:
1) BBC Democracy Live is licensed to use Parliamentary coverage through the BBC licence with PARBUL (Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit Ltd). Parliament does not have direct agreements with BBC and BBC Democracy Live. Therefore the information you require is not held by the House of Commons.
2) The televising of proceedings of Parliament is undertaken and distributed through PARBUL. As PARBUL shareholders the BBC receive full access to the broadcast feeds which they use for BBC Democracy Live. No information is therefore held by The House of Commons.
3) & 4) This information is not held by The House of Commons.
5) The Speaker signed the Speaker’s Licence variation on 22nd June 2010.
I attach some information which you may find useful.
You may, if dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, ask the House of Commons to conduct an internal review of this decision. Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of Information Officer, Department of Resources, House of Commons London SW1 OAA or [House of Commons request email] Please ensure that you specify the nature of your complaint and any arguments or points that you wish to make.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Katarina Ndrepepaj
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
Dear Katarina Ndrepepaj,
Many thanks for your helpful reply.
One small question. Where can I look for a copy of the Speaker's Licence variation?
I can find no indication of its existence in, say, the vote bundle for 22 June 2010:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...
Yours sincerely,
Julian Todd
Dear Mr Todd
Thank you for your request for information copied below. You asked for a copy of the Speaker's Licence variation. The information you require is attached.
To assist you with your enquiries, we have also attached a copy of the licence dated 2006 and a clause in PARBUL sub-licence as this will help to clarify the information in the document you requested.
You may, if dissatisfied with the treatment of your request, ask the House of Commons to conduct an internal review of this decision. Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of Information Officer, Department of Resources, House of Commons London SW1 OAA or [House of Commons request email] Please ensure that you specify the nature of your complaint and any arguments or points that you wish to make.
If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security House of Commons
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Richard Taylor left an annotation ()
This request has been cited at:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/sirajdatoo/no-sa...
The article author thinks it was made by Channel Four.