Gathering of evidence

[Subject only] FOI Ack letter.1001640.David Hansen.Dated.8.4.09.

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Dear Mr Hansen,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 05 April 2009 in which you ask for the
following information:

"Please provide a copy of the procedures the IPCC has to gather
information from sources like the mass media and investigate that
information".

I am writing to advise you that, in accordance with section 1(1)(a) and
1(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act:

1.-(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority
is entitled-
(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds
information of the description specified in the request, and
(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him

The procedure adopted by Senior Investigators leading an Independent
investigation is, at the start of the investigation to consider the
impact that the media will provide to the enquiry. A media strategy will
then be developed and more often than not, the media will be a main line
of enquiry. There is no set IPCC policy for this, and it is very much an
individual decision made by the IPCC Senior Investigator.

I would therefore like to confirm that the information you requested is
not held by the IPCC.

The IPCC does have a 'Media Manual Plan' section 14 deals with 'Media
monitoring' and section 15 deals with 'Using media coverage' which you
may find useful. Please see below link to access this document.

http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/media_manual_plan...

I have carefully considered your request under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act. If you are not satisfied with this response
you may request an independent internal review by our FOI appeals
officer, who has had no involvement in dealing with your request.

If you wish to appeal against this decision, please contact:

Freedom of Information Act Appeals
IPCC
90 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6BH

E mails should be clearly marked 'Appeal against FOI decision' and sent
to: [IPCC request email].

Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have
a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner; however, I should
point out that under section 50(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act,
you are obliged to exhaust the IPCC's own internal complaint mechanism
before complaining to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,
Vangie

Ms Vangie Parker
Freedom of Information Officer
independent police complaints commission
90 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6BH
Tel: 0207 166 3000
Fax: 0207 404 0430
E mail for IPCC FOI Unit: [IPCC request email]

www.ipcc.gov.uk

Notice: S77 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 makes it an offence
for anyone to alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal
information that is caught by the provisions of the FOI Act with the
intention of preventing the disclosure of all or part of the information
to which the requestor would have been entitled. You must therefore
provide the FOI Team with all information that is caught by this
request.

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