Unitary authority changes

Dear Alex Skene

Request pursuant to Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Request No. 768

I refer to your recent enquiry for information held by the Council.

Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the authority must state whether or not the information exists and I confirm that we do hold the information you requested.

Please find the information you requested below.

1) how you are treating in-progress FOI and EIR requests & internal
reviews made to the residuary bodies:

Requests received at the former Bedfordshire County Council prior to 1st April 2009 were acknowledged by the County Council FOI team informing the applicants exactly who would be dealing with their enquiry following 1st April. The outstanding requests and reviews from the former Bedfordshire County Council at 1st April were then forwarded to the Bedford Borough FOI Team to be dealt with in the usual manner.

2) what happens to emails sent to the residuary bodies' FOI contact
Addresses

Any emails arriving at the former Bedfordshire County Council's freedom of information email address following 1st April 2009 receive the message as follows:

PLEASE NOTE THIS MAILBOX IS NOW CLOSED.

From the 31st March 2009 Bedfordshire County Council no longer exists.
In its place there will be two new unitary authorities Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council.

This Mailbox is not monitored and requests will not be forwarded. Please make your request to the relevant new authority, contact details are below. All outstanding requests have been forwarded to the new authorities for them to complete

Their details are as follows:

Bedford Borough Council
The Freedom of Information Officer
Room A200 Registration & Administration, Bedford Borough Council, Town Hall, St Paul's Square, Bedford, MK40 1SJ

Email: [Bedford Borough Council request email]

and

Central Bedfordshire Council
The Freedom of Information Officer
Central Bedfordshire Council
Priory House
Monks Walk
Chicksands
Shefford
Bedfordshire SG17 5TQ

Email: [email address]

3) where should all new FOI and EIR requests go to:

If requests are for the north of the county i.e. the area covered by Bedford Borough Council, they should be sent to [Bedford Borough Council request email] if they are for Luton (covered by Luton Borough Council, a unitary authority for some years) they should be sent to [email address] and for requests concerning the rest of the county they should be sent to the new Central Bedfordshire Council mailto:[email address]

4) what is happening to information previously held by the
residuary bodies, and where should requests for this information go
to

Information previously held by Bedfordshire County Council has been retained either by Bedford Borough Council or Central Bedfordshire. Requests for information should be sent to the email addresses as mentioned in point 3. Requests can also be made via online forms or by post. EIRs can also be requested verbally. Full contact details/forms for each council can be found via the following links:
Bedford Borough Council: www.bedford.gov.uk
Central Bedfordshire: www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

If after viewing the information you are for whatever reason unhappy with our response to your application you are entitled to pursue any dissatisfaction through the Council's Internal Review Procedure. Pursuant to Section 17 (7) of the Act the procedure provided by the Council for dealing with complaints about the determination of this request for information is the Council's Corporate Complaints Procedure, a copy of which can be obtained on request or is set out at: www.bedford.gov.uk

Your attention is drawn to the provisions of section 50 of the Act set out below regarding applications for decision by the Commissioner:

"50. - (1) Any person (in this section referred to as "the complainant") may apply to the Commissioner for a decision whether, in any specified respect, a request for information made by the complainant to a public authority has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part I.

(2) On receiving an application under this section, the Commissioner shall make a decision unless it appears to him-

(a) that the complainant has not exhausted any complaints procedure which is provided by the public authority in conformity with the code of practice under section 45,

(b) that there has been undue delay in making the application,

(c) that the application is frivolous or vexatious, or

(d) that the application has been withdrawn or abandoned.

(3) Where the Commissioner has received an application under this section, he shall either-

(a) notify the complainant that he has not made any decision under this section as a result of the application and of his grounds for not doing so, or

(b) serve notice of his decision (in this Act referred to as a "decision notice") on the complainant and the public authority.

(4) Where the Commissioner decides that a public authority-

(a) has failed to communicate information, or to provide confirmation or denial, in a case where it is required to do so by section 1(1), or

(b) has failed to comply with any of the requirements of sections 11 and 17, the decision notice must specify the steps which must be taken by the authority for complying with that requirement and the period within which they must be taken.

(5) A decision notice must contain particulars of the right of appeal conferred by section 57.

(6) Where a decision notice requires steps to be taken by the public authority within a specified period, the time specified in the notice must not expire before the end of the period within which an appeal can be brought against the notice and, if such an appeal is brought, no step which is affected by the appeal need be taken pending the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.

(7) This section has effect subject to section 53."

Yours sincerely

Ann Jones
Corporate Information Officer
C Tel (01234) 221819 ex 2819.
Fax 01234 221606
[email address]
Room A200, Registration & Records, Bedford Borough Council,Town Hall, St Paul's Square, Bedford, MK40 1SJ

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