Registers of Gifts & Hospitality

Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act I seek a copy of your register
of gifts and hospitality. Specifically I would like to obtain a
complete record of all the gifts and hospitality offered to, or
accepted by, officials of Ofcom.

Please provide a copy of the register or its contents for the past
two years. I would prefer to receive this information
electronically.

The usual format for these registers is in an excel spreadsheet
with the following field categories:
• Date of gift/hospitality offered,
• Date accepted
• Recipient’s name
• Donor’s name (individual and/or company)
• Type of gift/hospitality
• Value

If this request is too broad in any way then I would expect under
your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance that you will
contact me to negotiate a way to make this request manageable. Such
registers are common throughout the public and private sector,
however, so I do not anticipate that it will be difficult to comply
with this request.
If you don’t hold the information but know where it is held then
please can you inform me of this and if possible transfer the
request to that public body

I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have
received this letter, and I look forward to your response within
the statutory time limits. Thank you for your consideration of this
request.

Regards,
Heather Brooke

Dear Ms Berg,
I am seeking an internal review of your decision to delay my
request by claiming s36 and using the public interest extension.

These registers are routinely published and should be available for
public inspection as a matter of course. There is no legitimate
recourse to s36 nor to delay answering my request by claiming a
public interest test is needed.

The disclosure of this information has already been tested in the
Information Commissioner's Office. In fact the publication of these
registers should be part of your organisation's publication scheme
and I am curious to know why I even have to file an FOI request for
them as they ought to be automatically disclosed.

See ICO guidance:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/free...

Lists and registers

We would expect information in this class to be information
contained in currently maintained lists and registers only.

* Public registers and registers held as public records.

Where an NDPB is obliged to maintain a register and to make the
information in it available for inspection by the public, it is
accepted that in most circumstances the existing provisions
covering access will suffice. We would expect however that NDPBs do
publicise which public registers they hold and how the information
in them is to be made public. Where registers contain personal
information, NDPBs must ensure that this is protected by the data
protection principles.

* Register of gifts and hospitality provided to Board members and
senior personnel
* Any register of interests kept in the department
* Other lists required by law
---

Taking note of the above, I therefore expect your substantive reply
promptly as the statutory period has already elapsed.

Yours sincerely,

Heather Brooke