SORN LLP Policy and legal compliance.

Dear Mr Collins

Freedom of Information - FOIR1399/09

Your request for information asked for copies of any and all documents
and emails produced in the development process of the SORN LLP notices
and the formulation of Policy in that area. You specifically asked for
any and all documents relating to legal compliance with both the
+IBg-Interpretations Act 1978+IBk and +IBg-The Road Vehicles (Registration
and Licensing) (Amendment) (No.3) Regulations 2003+IBk.

Your request is being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

If you have any queries about this letter quote the reference number
above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

DVLA

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February 2009 17:42 >>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like copies of any and all documents, emails etc produced
in the development process of the SORN LLP notices and the
formulation of Policy in this area.

This should specifically include any and all documents relating
to
legal compliance with both the 'Interpretations act 1978' and
'The
Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) (Amendment) (No. 3)
Regulations 2003'

Yours faithfully,

James Collins

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Please see attached.

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Mr Collins

Thank you for your e-mails of today in response to the information you have been provided with following your Freedom of Information request +IBg-SORN LLP Policy and legal compliance+IBk (Ref: FOI 1399/09).

Your initial e-mail of today (timed at 11:42) requests an Internal Review of the handling of the request FOI 1399/09 and this office is more than happy to arrange for such a review to be conducted.

However, your subsequent e-mail of today (timed at 11:51) appears to narrow down your request for information having received the response you did to the original request. This office deems that e-mail to be a new request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Your original request asked for information that +AJM-should specifically include (emphasis added) any and all documents relating to legal compliance with both the +IBg-Interpretations Act 1978+IBk and +IBg-The Road Vehicles (Regulations and Licensing)(Amendment)(No.3) Regulations 2003+IBkAlA whilst the e-mail received at 11:51 today states that you +AJM-would consider it acceptable if DVLA were to limit (emphasis added) their response to all documents relating+AJQ to the specified legislation.

You will be aware that an Internal Review will review the decision to withhold the information you originally requested and will consider the handling of that request; the review will not make a new search for the information that you have specifically requested in your second e-mail of today.

Therefore I would be grateful if you would clarify by return how you wish to proceed; do you wish for an Internal Review to be conducted into your original request or for a new search for information to be carried out limited to the legislation you specified?

I wait to hear from you before proceeding.

Regards

DVLA FOI Best Practice Team

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Dear Sir or Madam,

Further to my most recent email requesting an internal review I
would consider it acceptable if DVLA were to limit their response
to all documents relating to legal compliance with both the
'Interpretations act 1978' and 'The Road Vehicles (Registration and
Licensing) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2003' which are
documents that I believe are supposedly available for public
scrutiny.

Yours sincerely,

James Collins

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Mr Collins

Thank you for your further e-mail today timed at 2:57pm; the content of
which is noted.

Having received and responded to your request (Ref: FOI 1399/09) in
accordance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the
DVLA fulfilled its duty to respond to that request. This office deems a
further narrowed down request to be a new request if the narrowed down
request is made after the response to the original wider request has
been provided. That being the case, the narrowed down request would be
handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act as if it were
a new request.

Since you have suggested that your narrowed down request is not a new
request, this office will now proceed with conducting an Internal Review
of FOI 1399/09 as you asked in your original e-mail of today timed at
11:42. That review will be conducted in accordance with Information
Commissioner guidance and you will hear from us in due course.

Regards

DVLA FOI Best Practice Team

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14:56 >>>
Dear DVLA

Thank you for your reply.

At present I would be happy for you to limit the request to all
documents relating to legal compliance with both the
'Interpretations act 1978' and 'The Road Vehicles (Registration
and
Licensing) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2003' as stated in my
last email.

I would point out that it is not a new FOI request as you
suggest.
Removing part of the request does not make it a new request it is
a
narrowing down of a previous request to lower costs due to DVLA's
refusal to supply the requested details. Although I accept you
probably cannot get the information together before the original
deadline I do not believe it would be reasonable to make me wait
a
further 28 days considering you should already know where these
documents are stored as part of my original request.

Yours sincerely,

James Collins

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Subject: Re: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - Appeal of SORN LLP Policy and legal compliance.

Dear Mr Collins,

FOI Request - SORN LLP and legal compliance

I am in receipt of a copy of your e-mail of 11 March 2009 stating your wish for an Internal Review of the Agency+IBk-s decision not to release the information you requested.

I have been asked, as Freedom of Information decision-maker for Policy Development Initiatives, to independently review all correspondence relating to your request for information made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the application of the exemption under Section 12 of the FOIA.

Having done so, I can confirm that I agree with response provided by Paul Jeffreys in his reply of 11 March. Whilst it has been confirmed that the information you requested is held, I am of the opinion that the s12 FOIA exemption has been applied correctly. That is, the costs of determining, locating, retrieving and extracting the information you requested would exceed the appropriate cost limit of +AKM-600.

The information requested is held in files that are spread across several ranges of files each containing multiple sub-files in various areas within the DVLA. To process your request would, therefore, require a manual interrogation of each individual file. Whilst DVLA may hold this information, it is the Agency+IBk-s policy not to process requests likely to exceed the cost limit of +AKM-600 for provision of information under the FOIA.

This information supplied to you 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 re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by DVLA will have been produced by government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown copyright on the Office of Public Sector Information website at:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.

If you are not content with the outcome of this internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The information Commissioner can be contact at:

Information Commissioner+IBk-s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Sent unsigned via email

Judith Smith

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Dear DVLA

Thank you for your reply.

At present I would be happy for you to limit the request to all
documents relating to legal compliance with both the
'Interpretations act 1978' and 'The Road Vehicles (Registration and
Licensing) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2003' as stated in my
last email.

I would point out that it is not a new FOI request as you suggest.
Removing part of the request does not make it a new request it is a
narrowing down of a previous request to lower costs due to DVLA's
refusal to supply the requested details. Although I accept you
probably cannot get the information together before the original
deadline I do not believe it would be reasonable to make me wait a
further 28 days considering you should already know where these
documents are stored as part of my original request.

Yours sincerely,

James Collins

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