E-mail address of Principal Corporate Lawyer - Request for internal review

Dear Hillingdon Borough Council,

Your FOI / EIR complaints procedure now says that they should be
directed to the Principal Corporate Lawyer.

You will see below that I have requested his name and e-mail
address 4 times. The first occasion was on the 26th January.

I pointed this out to Fran Beasley, your Deputy Chief Executive on
27th Feb.

I received on 4th March an unconnected letter signed Simon Jones
Principal, Corporate Lawyer. So now I know his name but still have
not been told his e-mail address.

Could you please now treat this communication as an FOI complaint
and pass it on to Mr Jones asking him to complete an internal
review. Please ask him to respond to it via the whatdotheyknow web
site and not by post.

Could you please confirm on this web site that you have done so.

I now reproduce the 4 e-mails referred to above. I have deleted all
paragraphs which are not relevant to my information request.

--------------------
From: Hillingdon-Watch [mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 26 January 2010 14:22
To: Raj Alagh (Borough Solicitor - LB Hillingdon)
Cc: Richard Ingle (LBH Freedom Of Information Officer); Christopher
Williams (ICO)
Subject: LB Hillingdon FOI Act /EIR Procedures

Can you please tell me what the e-mail address of the Principal
Corporate Lawyer is.

Peter Silverman
www.hillingdon-watch.org.uk
20 Kingsend, Ruislip, HA4 7DA
01895 625770
----
From: Hillingdon-Watch [mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 28 January 2010 14:58
To: 'Richard Ingle'
Cc: 'Christopher Williams (ICO)'; 'Raj Alagh'
Subject: LB Hillingdon FOI Act /EIR Procedures

Mr Ingle,

3. Do not forget to let me have the e-mail address of the Principal
Corporate Lawyer. (I hope this is not going to take 20 working
days)

Peter Silverman
www.hillingdon-watch.org.uk
20 Kingsend, Ruislip, HA4 7DA
01895 625770

-----
From: Hillingdon-Watch [mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 29 January 2010 12:29
To: Richard Ingle (LBH Freedom Of Information Officer)
Cc: 'Richard Taylor'
Subject: London Borough Of Hillingdon FOI Requests for internal
review made via WhatDoTheyKnow

Should they now direct such requests to the Principal Corporate
Lawyer in which case what is his or her e-mail address?

Peter Silverman
www.hillingdon-watch.org.uk
20 Kingsend, Ruislip, HA4 7DA
01895 625770

----
From: Hillingdon-Watch [mailto:[email address]]
Sent: 10 February 2010 11:07
To: Raj Alagh (Borough Solicitor - LB Hillingdon)
Cc: Richard Ingle (LBH Freedom Of Information Officer)
Subject: Principal Corporate Lawyer

Mr Alagh,

While I await a reply to my e-mail below to Richard Ingle I would
be grateful if you could give me the name and e-mail address of the
Councils’ Principal Corporate Lawyer.

Many thanks

Peter Silverman
www.hillingdon-watch.org.uk
20 Kingsend, Ruislip, HA4 7DA
01895 625770
------------

Yours faithfully,

Peter Silverman

Attn Simon Jones, Principal Corporate Lawyer

Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your communication of 11th March 2010.

You are quite right that I had received 2 e-mails from you in June
2009 in response to mine to The Borough Solicitor and that these
gave your name, title (Principal Corporate Lawyer) and your e-mail
address.

Unfortunately when I became aware in January this year that foi
complaints now had to go to the "Principal Corporate Lawyer" I did
not recall that I had had e-mails from someone with that title 7
months previously. I therefore e-mailed Mr Alagh for your name and
e-mail address, and when I received no response, I e-mailed Mr
Ingle and then when he did not respond Mr Alagh again.

I am still puzzled by their lack of response to such a simple
request.

I am however pleased that you say that you will accept complaints
via the foi(at)hillingdon.gov.uk (n.b. e-mail addresses do not show
up on this web site) if they are marked for your attention. To
inform the public of this may I suggest the following changes to
your procedures:

1. Amend your FOI /EIR Complaints procedure A4 page to say
complaints can be sent to you via foi(at)hillingdon.gov.uk. At the
moment it only gives the snail mail option. (Incidentally your web
site still shows the old version directing complainants to the Dep.
Borough Solicitor)

2. When giving the initial response to a request via this web site
(whatdotheyknow.com)in which you explain the complaints procedure
in the text say that a complaint can be lodged by actioning the "I
am requesting an internal review button" Again only the snail mail
option is given at the moment.

Mr Jones, I hope this is of help.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Silverman

www.hillingdon-watch.org.uk

Dear Simon Jones,

Thank you for your communication of 12th March 2010. You say:

"We are in the process of revising our complaints procedure and we
will certainly consider the 2 changes you suggest as part of that
process".

Your review of the complaints procedure seems to be taking rather a
long time. I raised the issue with The Borough Solicitor on
24/09/08 when wrote "I wish to propose that LBH’s FOIA Complaints
Procedure be charged so as to fall into line with the ICO’s Good
Practice Guidance no. 5".

I got a response on 16/06/09 in which he said "I do accept that the
Council's FOI complaints procedure could be simplified and I have
tasked Mr Ingle with reviewing and revising it as necessary"

8th Oct 2009 Mr Ingle wrote to the Information Commissioner Office
(ICO)saying "The Council was aware, independently of the complaints
received by the ICO, that the FOI structure would need to be
reviewed, particularly in light of the Council restructure
that has taken place. It was also intended that the procedures and
structures would need to be reviewed after the Act had been in full
operation for a period of time. To this end, the Council has, over
the summer period, conducted a review of the structure through
which it delivers FOI and we are currently in the process of
putting in place a new structure.."

What is that saying about changing a light bulb?

Yours sincerely,

Peter Silverman