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

Marlon Campbell made this Freedom of Information request to Brent Borough Council

The request was partially successful.

From: Marlon Campbell

19 January 2010

Dear Brent Borough Council,

For 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, ie 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.

It is understood that a case may be referred to the ICO after the
council regards it a closed, and so this list request may not be
final and definitive, but at any given time, a FOI Request must be
either open or closed as far as the council, is considered.

This FOI Request is asking about the situation when it is
processed, and a snapshot should be taken, with the date of this
recorded in the reply.

As most of this information must already be held electronically for
administrative reasons by the council, it should not be onerous to
provide it.

Please provide this electronically, preferably in an XLS
spreadsheet.

Yours faithfully,

Marlon Campbell

Link to this

From: Stephen F Williams
Brent Borough Council

21 January 2010

Brent Council - INFORMATION REQUEST

Our Reference: 576001
====================================================

Dear Mr. Campbell

Thank you for your request for information received on 19 January 2010. We
aim to respond to your request within 20 working days.

However, whilst we may send the formal notification of the decision to the
email address you have provided we will not send the information requested
to that address. This is because we are aware that doing so will
automatically result in the information being published on the
whatdotheyknow website. Publication of information in this way may
constitute an unauthorised re-use (under the Re-use of Public Sector
Information Regulations 2005) and may infringe copyright. I would
therefore be grateful if you will provide me with an alternative
disclosure address. This can be a postal address, fax number or an email
address, as long as it does not result in automatic publication and
re-use.If you wish to apply for permission to re-use any of the requested
information you may do so by writing to the IT Standards Manager at Brent
Council, Floor 5, 349-357 High Road, Wembley HA9 6BZ , telephone 020 8937
1402, e-mail

[1][Brent Borough Council request email]

If you wish to appeal against the requirement to provide an alternative
disclosure address you can do so by writing to the IT Standards Manager at
the address given above.

You also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner. However,
the Information Commissioner will not normally consider an appeal until
you have exhausted your rights of redress and complaint to the Council.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted as follows: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF; Telephone: 01625 545 700, www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Stephen F Williams,

For Brent ITU

[email address]

--
The use of Brent Council's e-mail system may be monitored and communications read in order to secure effective operation of the system and other lawful purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Brent Borough Council request email]

Link to this

From: Marlon Campbell

21 January 2010

Dear Stephen F Williams,

I would ask you to reconsider your decision.

In this case the information requested cannot lead to issues of
unauthorised re-use or breach of copyright.

I would note that no other London Borough has raised this issue.

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

Link to this

Trevor R Nunn left an annotation (31 January 2010)

Until published there can be no breach even if the material was copyright, which I doubt in is. So at the time of refusing to send the information no breach exists.

Furthermore, how can they reasonably argue that information which every person on the planet could request should not be in the public domain. The reality is that if they published the information without demure it would significantly reduce the cost of their FOI department.

In addition, their decision not to send you the information because it may lead to copyright infringement is perverse. They should send the information and then take action if necessary. They should not abuse the FOI Act to save the cost of any necessary copyright enforcement.

Brent have shot themselves in the foot with this one. It is something they can't win and they are just digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole.

Link to this

Rob O'Donnell left an annotation ( 2 February 2010)

I had the exact same response from Bent re asking for alternate email addresses. I've never seen this before! This definitely needs addressing.

Link to this

Trevor R Nunn left an annotation ( 2 February 2010)

Just submitted a complaint to the ICO.

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

Link to this

From: Marlon Campbell

3 February 2010

Dear Stephen F Williams,

Could you kindly confirm whether you are going to provide the
Information asked for on this occasion to my WDTK email address?

If you refuse, I will refer this to the ICO for a Ruling.

I say you should provide the Information as requested.
You may include a Copyright Notice if you wish.

Publication of Information on a website if covered by a Copyright
Notice retains all the protection of copyright.

It is equivalent to a book or other publication, where copyright
protection is not lost by the fact of publication.

I say any concern you may have in general can be covered by a
statement such as that below, which was provided by Hounslow when
they provide WDTK with the Information in response to the same
request to them as I made to you.

I also say that you must provide the Information as requested, and
then take action should any breach of copyright subsequently occur.

I would point out that the ICO has already made a recent ruling in
these terms.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Most of the information that is provided in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright
protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by The London
Borough of Hounslow. However, the copyright in other information
may be owned by another person or organisation, as indicated in the
information itself.

"You are free to use any information supplied for your own use,
including for non-commercial research purposes. The information may
also be used for the purposes of news reporting. However, any other
type of re-use, for example, by publishing the information, using
it for marketing purposes or issuing copies to the public will
require the permission of the copyright owner.

"For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organisation, you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their
permission."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

Link to this

From: Williams, Stephenf
Brent Borough Council

4 February 2010

Dear Mr Campbell,

Firstly, I apologise for the delay in acknowledging and initiating the internal review that you requested.

Having reviewed your request and our request for you to supply us with an alternative address to send your information, I have concluded that your internal review has not been upheld.

The council has not and is not refusing to respond to your request which it accepts is valid and is ready to supply the information requested.

The council does have an issue with using the 'whatdotheyknow' email address. By using this email address, all responses are automatically uploaded on the associated website without any apparent control. You cannot assume that you can use information on the Internet freely just because it is available and free of charge. It does not mean you necessarily have an implied license.

The making of a Freedom of Information request cannot invalidate the council's rights to control further use of its own information or abrogate any duty it may owe to third party copyright holders. The concern is that disclosing information in the manner requested would make the council complicit in any such breach. Responding to an email address that automatically publishes responses does not make it possible for the council to exercise any controls referred to under the new regulations governing the re-use of public sector information, which came into force in July 2005 (Statutory Instrument 1515).

We have advised you of the means and circumstances in which we consider it reasonable to communicate the information requested. I urge you to supply an alternative address so that the information can be sent.

Rajesh Seedher
IT Standards Manager
Information Technology Unit
Business Transformation Department
Brent Council
Telephone 020 8937 1402

show quoted sections

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From: Marlon Campbell

4 February 2010

Dear Williams, Stephenf,

Please send the information to this email address:
[email address]

I understand that the wider issue of Brent Council's attitude to
WDTK is being pursued by the WDTK team.

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

Link to this

Trevor R Nunn left an annotation ( 5 February 2010)

You need to submit a complaint to the ICO. You can do it on line (link below) in a few minutes. If you provide a link to this page you don't even have to add any other documentation. Just tell them the reason you are complaining. The more people who complain about Brents behaviour the better.

https://forms.ico.gov.uk/freedom-of-info...

Link to this

From: Marlon Campbell

6 February 2010

Dear Williams, Stephenf,

I can confirm safe receipt of an email from you to the address I
provided for you.

However it merely contained your contact details, with no other
message or information at all.

Could you kindly send me the relevant information?

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

Link to this

From: Marlon Campbell

18 February 2010

Dear Williams, Stephenf,

Thank you for your reply, received to my private email address.

Unfortunately your reply was in XLSX format, and my computer cannot
understand it - 100closed cases.xlsx

I note that my original request asked for XLS format, which is
accessible to anyone who can read XLSX format, and also many others
with less sophisticated computers.

Please use the option in your software to save it to XLS format,
and then send that file to me.

Note, it would be helpful if you included in the subject of all
emails the Subject, ie in this case "Treatment of Freedom of
Information Requests - Subjects - Outcomes - Time to Respond".

It would also be helpful if you included your reference number in
the BODY of all emails, ie in this case "Our Reference: 576001"

Yours sincerely,

Marlon Campbell

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James Mason left an annotation (19 February 2010)

I have found the actual response from LB Brent.

It may be obtained this weblink:

http://tinyurl.com/y8gwryw

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Brent Borough Council only: