geographic telephone numbers for TV licensing

Ganesh Sittampalam made this Freedom of Information request to British Broadcasting Corporation

British Broadcasting Corporation did not have the information requested.

From: Ganesh Sittampalam

29 October 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

I request a list of all geographic numbers corresponding to the
following non-geographic phone numbers on a recent communication I
had from TV licensing:

0844 800 5899

0844 800 6760

0844 800 6778

0845 602 2320

If no direct equivalents are available then please provide the most
appropriate alternatives.

Yours faithfully,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

30 October 2008

Dear

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 about regional telephone numbers of TV licensing.
We shall deal with your request as promptly as possible and, at the
latest, within 20 working days. If you have any queries about your
request please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your request is RFI20081156.

Kind regards.

The Information Policy and Compliance Team BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, UK

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Elinor Davies left an annotation (30 October 2008)

If you want any of this information any sooner, you might try www.saynoto0870.com and search under TV Licence.

Good luck with your request

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

21 November 2008

Attachment RFI20081156 final response.pdf
116K Download View as HTML

Attachment RFI20081156 disclosure Breakdown of Costs of Collection 2008 financial year.pdf
10K Download View as HTML

<<RFI20081156 - final response.pdf>> <<RFI20081156 - disclosure -
Breakdown of Costs of Collection - 2008 (financial year).pdf>>

Dear Mr Sittampalam

Please find attached the response to your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Yours sincerely

Fern Kersey
Adviser, Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252
BBC White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi/
Email: [2]mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

21 November 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of British Broadcasting
Corporation's handling of my FOI request 'geographic telephone
numbers for TV licensing'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ge...

I believe that you have not considered the public interest test
appropriately; your assessment looks very similar/identical to many
other FOI responses you have made that are only marginally related.

Please consider the following additional factors in favour of
disclosure:

- People outside the UK are unable to call 0844 numbers. This might
be necessary when dealing with the affairs of UK property, for
example.

- It often costs more to call the 0844 number than the equivalent
geographic number, particularly for people using mobile phones or
who live in the local area of the geographic number. Since you
receive a rebate from the calls, they are indirectly paying you to
speak to you.

- You strongly emphasise the use of the telephone to contact you.
For example, in a recent letter I received, it stated that "If you
have a licence for this address in someone else's name, please call
our License Confirmation Line,...", without suggesting any other
means of contacting you that applied to these circumstances. I
would note that in this particular situation people are being
expected to spend their money and time on remedying a defect in
your own systems, since you could easily verify for yourselves that
a licence is held at the address and that the address is very
likely to be a single household.

- There is considerable public concern about organisations making
money from 0844/0870 numbers, as evidenced by the existence of
websites such as www.saynoto0870.com

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

27 November 2008

Dear Mr Sittampalam,
We have received your request for an internal review relating to
geographic telephone numbers for TV licensing. Your request for an
internal review was received on Friday 21st November. We shall deal with
the review as promptly as possible and, at the latest, within 30 working
days. If you have any queries please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your internal review is IR2008040.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

19 December 2008

Dear FOI Enquiries,

You will no doubt be aware that the Information Commissioner has
now ordered the release of geographic phone numbers in a similar
case:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/d...

Given this precedent, please release the information immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

7 January 2009

Dear Mr Sittampalam
I'm sorry to inform you that there will be a delay in us issuing our
internal review decision in relation to your request made under the terms
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We are endeavouring to provide a response as soon as possible but we are
reconsidering our position on this matter in light of the recent ICO
decision regarding disclosure of geographic numbers. If we have been
unable to send a response by Friday 16th January, we will write again to
update you on the progress of your request.

Kind Regards

BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
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Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

17 January 2009

Dear FOI Enquiries,

I remind you of your promise to send an update by 16th January,
i.e. yesterday, and of the fact that it will shortly be 40 working
days since I made my internal review request.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

19 January 2009

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

With reference to your email of 17th January, please accept our
apologies for the further delay in issuing our internal review decision
in relation to your request made under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We are endeavouring to provide a response as soon
as possible but this has been delayed due to the recent ICO decision
that you're aware of and our internal discussions in light of that
decision which included consideration by the BBC as to whether it will
lodge an appeal against this decision.

I hope to be in a position to send your response by Friday 23rd January,
but if this is not the case I will write again by Monday 26th to update
you on the progress of your request.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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Mr Ormerod left an annotation (23 January 2009)

This is totally unacceptable. I would be referring this matter to the ICO without delay.

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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

24 January 2009

Dear FOI Enquiries,

The ICO's decision notice was issued on 11th December. Since you
had 28 days to appeal, this decision must have made been made over
two weeks ago. What was it?

Secondly, it has now been 42 working days since my review request.
You will no doubt be aware that the ICO considers that internal
reviews should never take longer than 40 days, and the public
authority needs to able to demonstrate that it has commenced the
review procedure promptly and worked on it actively throughout the
period.

Therefore, please could you provide me with details of what work
you have done so far on the review, together with the dates this
work was done.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

26 January 2009

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

It is my understanding that the ICO decision related to a different set
of non-geographic numbers, and that therefore the specific issues
relating to those numbers were different to the issues relating to the
numbers covered by this review.

However I can confirm that the decision with reference to your internal
review has been made, and the response prepared.

We are awaiting confirmation on one final point and I hope to be in a
position to send your review decision no later than tomorrow Tuesday
27th January.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

26 January 2009

Dear FOI Enquiries,

Although the earlier request covered a different set of geographic
numbers, the ICO's judgement makes it clear that the arguments that
you advanced in support of the section 43 exemption were the same
as the arguments you have advanced in this case. Since they were
comprehensively rejected by the ICO, it would be ludicrous for you
to claim that they can still be validly applied here if you have
not appealed his judgement.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

26 January 2009

Attachment IR2008040 Internal Review Decision.pdf
38K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please find attached our decision in relation to your Internal Review.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in issuing this response, which
as you're aware was due to the Information Commissioner issuing a decision
on a similar issue in the intervening space following receipt of your
request.

<<IR2008040 - Internal Review Decision.pdf>>

Kind Regards

L Wright
BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[2]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
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Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation (26 January 2009)

So...my request asked for "all geographic numbers", and they said there aren't any "fixed equivalent geographical numbers" and therefore they don't hold the information (except in one case where there is a fixed one). However it's clear from what they said that there are numbers, they just vary based on the time of day.

What next? New request making it clear I want any geographic number at all seems the obvious choice.

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From: Ganesh Sittampalam

28 January 2009

Dear FOI Enquiries,

Your reviewer appears to have misinterpreted my original request -
I asked for all geographic numbers corresponding to the
non-geographic ones I listed, not just ones that don't vary
according to the time of day or other factors. Would you like to
reconsider this decision? Otherwise I will submit a fresh request.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

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From: FOI Enquiries
British Broadcasting Corporation

18 March 2009

Attachment RFI20090277 final response.pdf
110K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please find attached the response to your request for information which
has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act
2000. We have not met the 20 working day deadline for this response and
we would like to offer our apologies for this delay.

<<RFI20090277 - final response.pdf>>
Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.

References

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2. mailto:[BBC request email]
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