Request for copies of correspondence with DLA Piper UK LLP

The request was refused by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council.

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

Please forward copies of ALL correspondence you have, whether
received or sent, regardless of the medium used, (letter; email; fax; memorandum, etc.) and regardless of subject matter, with the following law firm:

DLA Piper UK LLP

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Request for copies of correspondence with DLA Piper UK LLP'.

You have run well overdue with this FoI request. Please:

o Carry out an internal review
o Provide me with the name and telephone contact details of the reviewing officer
o Provide me with a response, acknowledging receipt of this internal review request,

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

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

Yours faithfully,

Paul Cardin

O'Hare, Tracy J., Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Hello Paul Cardin

 

RE: internal review request 06.03.2012

       For freedom of information request received 04.02.2012 Request for
copies of

correspondence with DLA Piper UK LLP'.

 

Please accept this email as acknowledgement of your below request for an
internal review for the above freedom of information request received
04.02.2012.

Your internal review request is currently with our legal department and
will be assigned a reviewing officer.

Wirral Council will contact you with the name of the reviewing officer
when this has been assigned.

Kind regards

    

Tracy O'Hare

FOI Co-ordinator

Information Management

Municipal Building

Cleveland Street

CH41 6BU

[Wirral Borough Council request email]

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

 

Dear Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council,

    

     Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of

     Information reviews.

    

     I am writing to request an internal review of Wirral Metropolitan

     Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Request for copies of

     correspondence with DLA Piper UK LLP'.

    

     You have run well overdue with this FoI request. Please:

    

     o Carry out an internal review

     o Provide me with the name and telephone contact details of the

     reviewing officer

     o Provide me with a response, acknowledging receipt of this

     internal review request,

    

     Yours faithfully,

    

     Paul Cardin

    

 

 

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Dear O'Hare, Tracy J.,

You failed to initially respond correctly to my request and you have now failed to carry out the promised internal review.

I believe in keeping people updated with progress and wish to advise you that this has now become another request to be appealed with the Information Commissioner.

Given your inadequate response to others on this website alone, I expect the regulator may soon be forming the opinion that Wirral Council are becoming dysfunctional in a very important area; that of the effective public provision of information and data, and will act accordingly,

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cardin

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

I rang the officer dealing with this at the Information Commissioner's Office this afternoon.

He told me that in accordance with my wishes, the complaint had been 'escalated' in July 2012.

He then stated that the department concened are currently processing complaints 'escalated in May'. So, at this rate, the complaint will be dealt with two months from now, in November 2012. Apparently I can ring the senior manager and ask him to promote it if I regard it as urgent enough. I consider unaddressed disability discrimination IS urgent enough, so will get onto this asap.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

The reasoning behind this FoI request is explained on this blog, along with a copy of a letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, concluding that disability discrimination was carried out by Wirral Council over a period of several years against 16 of its own supported living tenants:

http://easyvirtualassistance.wordpress.c...

Since The Director of Law was suspended at Wirral Council in July 2012, further doubt has been cast on DLA Piper UK's bizarre conclusion, which flew in the face of that of the EHRC, that there was "no disability discrimination" by Wirral Council.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Here is a link to an article, setting out what I feel is the background and true motivation behind Wirral Council's very poor response times.

Notably, there are just 2 people dedicated to Freedom of Information and Data at this council (one professional and one admin assistant) - which says it all really.

http://easyvirtualassistance.wordpress.c...

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Afternoon

 

Thank you for your request.  I would like to take this opportunity to
apologise for the delay in responding to your enquiry. Please see attached
information in respect of your query.

 

Thank you for your enquiry

Kind regards

 

Tracy O'Hare

Information Management

Wirral Council

 

This information supplied to you is copyrighted and continues to be
protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.   You are free
to use it for your own purposes, including any non commercial research you
are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for
example commercial publication, would require our specific permission, may
involve licensing and the application of a charge

 

 

show quoted sections

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

This case was appealed to the ICO and a Decision Notice arrived recently dated 3rd October 2013, 20 months after the original request was lodged (February 2012).

Wirral Council have 35 days from 3rd October 2013 to supply the information I requested, which was wrongly withheld under Section 41. The council withdrew their reliance on Section 42 and used Section 41 wrongly.

I will update this thread soon with the outcome.