Handling of Internal Reviews by Cabinet Office

M Bimmler made this Freedom of Information request to Information Commissioner’s Office

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

From: M Bimmler

29 May 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to request all information you hold on the time
aspects of the handling of Internal Review requests made under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Cabinet
Office.

I define "time aspects" as how long it has taken the Cabinet Office
to finish the internal review and especially whether the Cabinet
Office has finished the review in the 20/40 days suggested by ICO
guidance.

I recognise that there may be many implicit records on the handling
of such internal reviews present in the case notes or
correspondence concerning individual complaints to the ICO. If
searching for those exceeds the cost limit, I would ask for my
request to be interpreted as to cover only explicit references
about the Cabinet Office's "performance" with regards to the above
mentioned time aspects. Particularly helpful would be
"case-independent" correspondence on this matter, either within the
ICO or between the ICO and the Cabinet Office, however I would also
be interested in records which are associated with a particular
complaint, if during the consideration of that
complaint the ICO has had substantial discussions with the Cabinet
Office on undue delays in Internal Review procedures.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Bimmler

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Information Commissioner’s Office

1 June 2009

Link: [1]File-List

1st June 2009

Case Reference Number IRQ0250414

Dear Mr Bimmler

Thank you for your correspondence dated 29 May 2009 regarding internal
review requests made to the Cabinet Office.

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  We will respond by 26 June 2009 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

References

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1. file:///tmp/radCD446_files/filelist.xml

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From: M Bimmler

26 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

This email is just to confirm that I expect to receive a reply by
the end of business today, June 26th, as indicated in your
acknowledgment of June 1st.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Bimmler

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Information Commissioner’s Office

29 June 2009

Link: [1]File-List

29th June 2009

Case Reference Number IRQ0250414

Dear Mr Bimmler

We apologise for the delay in replying to this request for information. It
is a matter of regret that we have been unable to respond within the legal
time limit. We anticipate that we will be able to reply shortly. 

Yours sincerely

Graham S Smith

Internal Compliance Team

Information Commissioner's Office

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

References

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1. file:///tmp/rad7467F_files/filelist.xml

Link to this

From: M Bimmler

30 June 2009

Dear Mr Smith,

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Bimmler

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Information Commissioner’s Office

1 July 2009

Link: [1]File-List

1st July 2009

Case Reference Number IRQ0250414

Dear Mr Bimmler

By email dated 29 May you asked us to provide all information we hold on
the time aspects of the handling of Internal Review requests made to the
Cabinet Office under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act
2000.

I can confirm that we do hold information about the handling of internal
reviews by the Cabinet Office.

Where this has been drawn to our attention in cases that have resulted in
a Decision Notice the information is publicly available and reasonably
accessible in the Decision Notices published on our website. A summary of
the Decision Notices is available [2]here  and links are provided to the
full Decision Notice from each summary. This information is reasonably
accessible to you and therefore is exempt under section 21 Freedom of
Information Act.

I am unable to provide any other information we hold.  Under section 59
of the Data Protection Act 1998, it is an offence for the Commissioner or
any member of his staff to disclose information obtained or supplied for
the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, which relates to an
identifiable organisation and which has not previously been publicly
available. The prohibition does not apply if the information can be
provided with lawful authority, but there is no lawful authority in the
current circumstances. This operates as a statutory prohibition on the
disclosure of information making the information exempt in accordance with
section 44(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

I would like to explain that the delay in responding to you has been to
allow full consideration of whether there is lawful authority to release
this information. It has been decided that in the current circumstances in
which the information is held, lawful authority does not exist.

We may also hold some information that amounts to your personal data. As I
am responding in accordance with the provisions of the FOIA I am neither
confirming nor denying whether or not any information that amounts to your
personal data is held. This is in accordance with section 40(5) of the
FOIA. Strictly speaking section 40(5) is a qualified exemption requiring
consideration to be given to whether or not it is in the public interest
to apply the exemption. I feel sure that I do not need to go into any
detail in confirming that I am satisfied that the public interest in
applying the exemption is greater than the public interest in providing
any such indication.

If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to
request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to the Internal Compliance Team
at the address below or e-mail [3][email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner. I understand that you have already received a copy of our
review procedures.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please write
to the Case Reception Team, at the address below or visit the
‘Complaints’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information
Act or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.

Yours sincerely

Graham S Smith

Internal Compliance Team

Information Commissioner's Office

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http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: [email address]
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/rad2BC1E_files/filelist.xml
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/tools_and_res...
3. mailto:[email address]

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From: M Bimmler

2 July 2009

Dear Mr Smith,

thank you for your message. I am somewhat puzzled by your refusal
to release these records, because it seems to be at odds with your
decision in IRQ0238334, where you consented to provide me with
copies of correspondence between the ICO and the Home Office resp.
the MPS concerning a very similar matter. Could you outline the
difference between these two cases and what led you to make a
different assessment of the situation here resp. why the Data
Protection exemption was not applied in IRQ0238334?

At the moment, I would like you to treat this simply as
correspondence and not as an Internal Review request but I reserve
the right to submit such a request later on.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Bimmler

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From: M Bimmler

6 July 2009

Dear Mr Smith,

I hereby withdraw my request.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Bimmler

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