Gagging Orders in Secret Family Courts

Dear Mrs Docherty

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Request for
Information

Thank you for your recent enquiry for information held by the Council
under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We
acknowledge receipt of your request dated 14 October 2009, which was
received in our office and we will be touch with you again in due course.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and if that is the case, we
will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you and you will be
required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

If you require any further information or are not happy with our response
please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team on 0121 303 4876.

Yours sincerely

Corporate Information Governance Team

Data Protection Act 1998
The information you have provided within your Freedom of Information
request will be held on our database and may also be held within manual
records for a period of 2 years from the date Birmingham City Council
received your request. Any personal data that you provide to Birmingham
City Council will be held in line with the requirements set out within the
Data Protection Act 1998.

Re Use of Public Sector Information
Where Birmingham City Council is the copyright holder of any information
that may be released, re-use for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes is permitted without further reference to the City Council. Where
the re-use is for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, the applicant
should notify the City Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms
for re-use.

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Dear Mrs Docherty

Further to your request for information regarding:

(a) How many individuals have been taken to court by your authority
in-order to gag them. To stop them from speaking out about the injustices
they have suffered at the hands of the council children's social services
and secret family courts. Provide all records to-date that are held.

(b) How much did these gagging order injunctions cost the ratepayer.

(c) Who is responsible for actioning these enforcement orders by the
council, i.e. who signs the applications for court.

(d) How many parents /relatives/individuals have received further
sanctions for breaking these gagging orders.

(e) Are any of these decisions to gag/sanction taken by unelected
local authority officers responsible for children’s social care, finance,
legal or any other relevant department.

(f) If councillors make these decisions at which meeting(s) are these
discussed.

We are sorry for the delay in answering your request, this is because
Birmingham City Council's Children Young People and Families Directorate
and the Council's Legal Services department have been unable to locate any
information requested in your request.

This may be due to the records being held on individual case files, if this
is the case. The Council has estimated that to search all case files held
by the Council to retract the information you are requesting would easily
exceed the 18 hours / £450 fees limit.

To fully meet your request, Council officers would have to go through all
our child care files, both open and closed, to locate any references to any
such “gagging orders”. Bearing in mind that we are required to keep
adoption and child care files for over 100 years, and that Birmingham has
the largest population of children in the Country (approximately ¼million
under 16 year olds), the costs of locating such files, before even
searching such files, would easily exceed the 18 hour threshold by a
considerable amount.

Normally, Birmingham City Council would offer the requestor the option of
paying the additional costs incurred, and provide a detailed estimate.
However, where the time and resources involved in handling a request would
have a considerable detrimental impact on the Council’s ability to provide
core services, Birmingham City Council is entitled to refuse the request
under s12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.

You are entitled to make a further request. If you require assistance to
help formulate a request that falls within the fees regulations, please
contact us. However, an initial preliminary search has not been able to
determine whether any “gagging orders” have been obtained.

If you are not satisfied with the response you may ask for an internal
review. If subsequently you are not satisfied with the Council’s decision
you may apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at the following address:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545745
Web Address: www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Corporate Information Governance Team

Re use of Public Sector Information

The information provided is subject to Birmingham City Council copyright,
however, it may be re-used for personal, educational or non-commercial
purposes without further reference to the City Council. If the re-use is
for other purposes, such as commercial re-use, you should notify the City
Council in writing to seek approval or agree terms for re-use. Where
Birmingham City Council does not hold the copyright, it has indicated the
copyright holder. Permission for re-use should be sought from them
directly.

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