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Information Commissioner's Guidance Ignored

Mr B Gerrish (Account suspended) made this Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council

The request was successful.

From: Mr B Gerrish (Account suspended)

11 October 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please supply all information/figures held that relate to
the whether or not the Council are taking a relatively low-key
approach as recommended when answering requests placed by the
public.

It is pleasing to note that this has been applied on one occasion,
the requester being known only as Jim.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/in...

Yet worrying that the Council has on several occasions’ where ‘the
prime consideration is whether enough of a person’s full name
has been provided to give a reasonable indication of that person’s
identity ‘ contained within the guidance below has been ignored and
questions left permanently un-answered.

Quote:

'We recognise that it may be difficult for a public authority to be
certain that a pseudonym has been used by an applicant. A
relatively low-key approach is recommended and public authorities
should not seek proof of the applicant’s identity as a matter of
course. In accordance with the spirit and purpose of the FOIA, the
default position of a public authority should be to accept the name
provided by the applicant unless there is good reason to enquire
further about the applicant’s name, as indicated above.
Even when an obvious pseudonym has been used, as good practice a
public authority should still consider the request even though
technically it can be regarded as invalid. This approach could be
adopted in cases where identity is not relevant to the request and,
in view of the general principle within the FOIA of disclosure to
the world at large, where the authority is content to disclose the
information.
What constitutes a real name?
We consider that a relatively informal approach is also appropriate
in this context. Therefore, title and/or first name with surname
satisfies the requirement for provision of a real name, as does the
use by a female applicant of her maiden name.
The prime consideration is whether enough of a person’s full name
has been provided to give a reasonable indication of that person’s
identity.'

Yours faithfully,

Mr Brian Gerrish

Link to this

Kent County Council

5 November 2009

s8 FOIA.pdf
14K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Gerrish

Thank you for your request for information.

Since 1st January 2005 to date, Kent County Council has received 3996
requests for information falling under the scope of either the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. In
that time, KCC has only refused to consider 11 of these requests (0.28%) -
all this year - on the grounds that the applicant was not using their real
name, a necessary requirement for a request to be valid under section 8 of
the Act. Please see the attached summary.

With regard to 9 of the 11 applicants, the Council had good reason to
believe the applicant was using a pseudonym to shield his/her identity in
order to avoid the possibility of the request being considered as
vexatious or repeated. We had previously cited two applicants as vexatious
("S Smith" & "S Davis) because for both individuals, the volume and
content of their requests when considered collectively appeared to
be a deliberate attempt to disrupt the Council's operations. The Council
noticed that both applicants had clearly not read replies to previous
requests, would often repeat questions and would not accept that the
Council has no obligation to create information to satisfy their requests.
The subject matter of their requests suggested both applicants were
connected in some way to a particular Children's Social Services
case involving the grandchildren of a Maidstone Borough Councillor and
once we refused to accept requests from these two individuals, the same
requests for information were then submitted by "new" applicants who
coincidentally shared the same names as officials involved on the above
child care case.

With regard to the other two applicants, "Madge" happened to submit a
request at the same time as we refused the "S Smith/S Davis aliases" so
the decision was taken to refuse her also on the grounds of consistency
and fairness. "I P Freely" appears to be an obvious pseudonym.

All of these applicants have been given the option to prove their identity
and/or contact us using their personal email address if they do not want
their "real name" to be in the public domain via the whatdotheyknow
website. KCC would then be happy to reconsider their request. None of
these applicants have pursued this option.

For your information, details of all completed requests for information
and our reasons for withholding information if applicable, is readily
accessible to you via our website.
[1]http://www.kent.gov.uk/publications/coun...

If you are unhappy with this response, and believe KCC has not complied
with legislation, please ask for a review by following our complaints
process; details can be found at this link
[2]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...
on our website. Please quote reference FOI/09/1145.

If you still remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you can
appeal to the Information Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should
you wish to pursue this course of action, are available from the
Information Commissioner's website
[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

Best regards

Caroline Dodge
Corporate Access to Information Coordinator, Chief Executive's Department
Kent County Council, Legal & Democratic Services, Room 1.94, Sessions
House, County Hall, Maidstone. ME14 1XQ.
Tel: 01622 221652 - Fax: 01622 694383
[4]http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democ...

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