Treatment of Freedom of Information Requests - Subjects - Outcomes - Time to Respond

Ref: TFL102352

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19
January 2010.

You have asked for information on the most recent 100 FOI cases received
and actioned by TfL.

We will deal with your request as soon as possible and in any case provide
you with a response by 16.02.2010.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your
request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Transport for London
Customer Relations

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Ref: TFL102352

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19
January 2010.

You have asked for information on the most recent 100 FOI cases received
and dealt with by TfL.

Your request is being considered under the Freedom of Information Act.

Unfortunately we will not be able to resolve your request within the
statutory 20 working day deadline. This is because we are still in the
process of collating the information.

We will respond as soon as possible. Please accept my apologies for this
delay and any inconvenience it may cause you. In the meantime, if you have
any queries relating to your request, please do not hesitate to contact me
at the above email address.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please read the attached
help-sheet entitled `Your Right to Appeal'

Yours sincerely

Maria La Tegola

TfL Customer Relations

Your Right to Appeal

Internal Review

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision.

The internal review will be conducted by someone other than the person who
made the original decision, in accordance with the complaints procedure
published on our website at [1]www.tfl.gov.uk/foi.

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance

6^th Floor Windsor House

42 - 50

Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0TL

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner's Office
website

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/foi
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

18 February 2010

Our Ref: IRV-099-0910

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your email of 16 February 2010 in which you expressed your
disappointment in the way in which TfL has handled your FOI request. Your
email has been passed to TfL's Information Access & Compliance Team
(IACT), which is responsible for TfL's compliance with the Freedom of
Information Act.

TfL will be undertaking an internal review to establish why a response to
your request was not provided within 20 working days. The review will be
conducted in accordance with the attached procedure. The review will be
completed as soon as possible and in any event by 18 March 2010.

In the meantime I can provide you with an update on the status of your
request. Of the three Customer Services teams which deal with FOI requests
within TfL, two of them have provided statistics to IACT so that IACT can
check whether any of these requests have been subject to an internal
review or a complaint to the ICO. The Customer Service Team which has not
yet provided their statistics has been made aware that they must do so as
soon as possible. We expect to be in a position to respond to your request
by the end of next week.

I hope this information is of assistance. Please contact me if you would
like to discuss this matter.

Kind regards

Matthew Towey | Compliance Adviser
Information Access & Compliance Team | Corporate Governance | Transport
for London

5th Floor, Windsor House, 42-50 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0TL
T: 020 7126 3063/ auto 63063

From: Marlon Campbell [mailto:[FOI #27346 email]]

Sent: 16 February 2010 19:58

To: Enquire (TfL)

Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Treatment of Freedom of
Information Requests - Subjects - Outcomes - Time to Respond

Dear Enquire (TfL),

I adopt the wording used by another complainant over this issue.

This is very disappointing.

The Request was a straight forward one, and I see no reason why TfL

could not provide its response within the statutory limit of 20wd.

To say TfL hopes to reply "as soon as possible" is simply not good

enough.

Please give an indication of a date by when TfL expects to provide

its reply - as otherwise a reference to the ICO will become

necessary.

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

Ref: TfL102352

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19
January 2010, in which you submitted a Freedom of Information request.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in this response, due to the time
taken to collate all of the required information.

You requested the following information.

"The 100 most recent FOI requests which the council considers closed, be
that because the request was rejected, met, or declared "not held", please
provide the following information:

1. The date the request was received by the council

2. The summary subject of the request - in less than 20 words

3. The date the request was acknowledged

4. The date the initial final response was given

5. The status of this response, i.e. met, not held, rejected

6. Whether an Internal Review was requested, and if so the date on
which this was completed and the outcome status

7. Whether the FOI Request to the council's knowledge was referred to
the ICO

8. Whether the ICO issued any guidance or instruction to the council
following this referral

9. The final outcome after the ICO referral"

Attached is an excel file with the information you have requested.

It may help if I explain that there are three customer service teams
within TfL which deal with FOI requests. They each use different
correspondence systems and it has taken some time to retrieve the level of
detail you have requested for the last 100 requests received across these
three teams and then cross-check this against the internal review database
maintained by TfL's Information Access & Compliance Team.

I hope this information is of assistance. I understand that you have
requested an internal review on the basis of the time it has taken to
respond to this request. If you wish for any aspects of this response to
be reviewed please contact [1][email address]

Yours sincerely

Transport for London
Customer Relations

Your right to appeal

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision. The
internal review will be conducted by someone who was not involved in the
processing of your original request, in accordance with the complaints
procedure published on our website at www.tfl.gov.uk/foi

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance

Floor 5, Windsor House

42-50 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0TL

E-mail: [email address]

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner's Office
website at

[2]www.ico.gov.uk

Copyright

Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL
or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure
of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe
copyright (for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing copies
to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the
fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
(sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial
purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In respect
of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any reproduction must be
accompanied by an acknowledgement that TfL or one of its subsidiary
companies is the copyright owner.

Re-use

If you would like to re-use the information supplied with this response
please contact TfL using the details provided in the attached letter.
Requests for re-use will be considered in accordance with the Re-use of
Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

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15 March 2010

Our Ref: IRV-099-0910

Dear Mr Campbell

The internal review of your Freedom of Information request has been
completed.

The review found that the delay in responding to your request was due to
two of TfL's Customer Service Teams failing to provide their statistics
within 20 working days. Once they had provided their statistics the
information had to be cross-checked against the internal review database
maintained by TfL's Information Access & Compliance Team. This added to
the time taken to respond.

On behalf of TfL please accept my apologies for the failure to comply with
your request within the statutory deadline. Both teams have been reminded
of their responsibilities when dealing with FOI requests. If you are
dissatisfied with the outcome of this internal review, you can refer the
matter to the independent authority responsible for enforcing the Freedom
of Information Act at the following address.

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the ICO's website (www.ico.gov.uk).

Yours sincerely

Matthew Towey | Compliance Adviser
Information Access & Compliance Team | Corporate Governance | Transport
for London

5th Floor, Windsor House, 42-50 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0TL
T: 020 7126 3063/ auto 63063

From: FOI
Sent: 18 February 2010 09:32
To: '[FOI #27346 email]'
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Treatment of Freedom of
Information Requests - Subjects - Outcomes - Time to Respond

18 February 2010

Our Ref: IRV-099-0910

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your email of 16 February 2010 in which you expressed your
disappointment in the way in which TfL has handled your FOI request. Your
email has been passed to TfL's Information Access & Compliance Team
(IACT), which is responsible for TfL's compliance with the Freedom of
Information Act.

TfL will be undertaking an internal review to establish why a response to
your request was not provided within 20 working days. The review will be
conducted in accordance with the attached procedure. The review will be
completed as soon as possible and in any event by 18 March 2010.

In the meantime I can provide you with an update on the status of your
request. Of the three Customer Services teams which deal with FOI requests
within TfL, two of them have provided statistics to IACT so that IACT can
check whether any of these requests have been subject to an internal
review or a complaint to the ICO. The Customer Service Team which has not
yet provided their statistics has been made aware that they must do so as
soon as possible. We expect to be in a position to respond to your request
by the end of next week.

I hope this information is of assistance. Please contact me if you would
like to discuss this matter.

Kind regards

Matthew Towey | Compliance Adviser
Information Access & Compliance Team | Corporate Governance | Transport
for London

5th Floor, Windsor House, 42-50 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0TL
T: 020 7126 3063/ auto 63063

From: Marlon Campbell [mailto:[FOI #27346 email]]

Sent: 16 February 2010 19:58

To: Enquire (TfL)

Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - Treatment of Freedom of
Information Requests - Subjects - Outcomes - Time to Respond

Dear Enquire (TfL),

I adopt the wording used by another complainant over this issue.

This is very disappointing.

The Request was a straight forward one, and I see no reason why TfL

could not provide its response within the statutory limit of 20wd.

To say TfL hopes to reply "as soon as possible" is simply not good

enough.

Please give an indication of a date by when TfL expects to provide

its reply - as otherwise a reference to the ICO will become

necessary.

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell