Westminster ignores Eiger Capital FOI request

Blue made this Freedom of Information request to Westminster City Council

Waiting for an internal review by Westminster City Council of their handling of this request.

From: Blue

13 May 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

I see that you have failed comply with the law regarding
information requested for outstanding business rates for Eiger
Capital ltd. A company of which the leader of Westminster City
Council Colin Barrow was a paid company director.

I would like to request copies of all correspondence sent to the
Westminster FOI team, along with replies from the FOI team,
regarding FOI request made from this site by Nathen Brooke on the 9
April 2009 titled 'Eiger Capital ltd'.

Yours faithfully,

Blue

Link to this

From: FOI
Westminster City Council

27 May 2009

Dear Blue

Thank you for your email to the Council. Following an investigation, we
can confirm that we have no record of receiving a request for
information regarding business rates for Eiger Capital Ltd from Mr
Brooke, and therefore have no correspondence regarding this request.

In addition, with regard to the What Do They Know site, our
understanding is that any correspondence sent or received regarding a
request is automatically posted on the site and therefore if any
correspondence did exist, this would be exempt under Section 21 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 as it would be deemed reasonably
accessible by other means.

Further information on the Freedom of Information Act can be obtained
for the Information Commissioner and for your convenience, his contact
details are provided below.

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

T: 01625 54 57 45
W: http://www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Corporate FOI Team
Information Services
Westminster City Council
18th Floor
City Hall
64 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QP
Tel: 020 7641 3332
Fax: 020 7641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]

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From: Blue

27 May 2009

Dear FOI,

I'm very surprised you are now denying ever receiving an FOI
request on the 9th April 2009 regarding outstanding business rates
by Eiger Capital ltd.

Here is the URL for that FOI request which the many thousands of
visitors to this site can plainly read, why are you denying any
knowledge of this FOI request, please explain?

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

I am also still requesting any internal communications from other
Westminster councillors or their officers which have been sent to
the FOI team regarding Eiger Capital ltd. I believe you are also
wrong to suggest you publish such internal emails and letters on
this site without first receiving a specific FOI request as I am
doing here. Can you specifically state that there has been no
communication from Councillor Barrow or his agents (which includes
council officers and/or any other agent of the council) to the FOI
team regarding this matter?.

Can you specifically state that there has been no communication
from any Westminster City Councillor or their agents (which
includes council officers and/or any other agent of the council,
legal representative etc.) to the FOI team regarding this matter?.

Yours sincerely,

Blue

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Mr Sawyer left an annotation (27 May 2009)

The request is on What Do They Know, what are Westminster talking about?

Methinks there's something there they don't want in the public domain.

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Mr Jones left an annotation (27 May 2009)

It sounds like Westminster is trying to hide something... let's digg in.

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Westminster City Council

4 June 2009

Confirmation of Freedom Of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information.

Your request details have now been recorded and will be passed on to the
appropriate Divisional Records Officer for action.

This Freedom Of Information Request was based on the following
information:

Name: Blue
Address: see email address
Email: [FOI #11900 email]
Telephone:
Request Details: I am also still requesting any internal communications
from other Westminster councillors or their officers which have been sent
tothe FOI team regarding Eiger Capital ltd. I believe you are also wrong
to suggest you publish such internal emails and letters on this site
without first receiving a specific FOI request as I am doing here. Can you
specifically state that there has been no communication from Councillor
Barrow or his agents (which includes council officers and/or any other
agent of the council) to the FOI team regarding this matter?.

Can you specifically state that there has been no communication from any
Westminster City Councillor or their agents (which includes council
officers and/or any other agent of the council, legal representative etc.)
to the FOI team regarding this matter?

FOI Reference Number: 3894
Target Completion Date: 24/06/2009

Please do not reply to this email.
This is an automatic response to your request, and replies to this message
will not be actioned.

If you need to contact Westminster City Council regarding your request,
please contact:

mailto:[Westminster City Council request email]
Tel:020 7641 3921

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From: Blue

18 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

This request regarding Eiger Capital ltd is currently overdue a
response from Westminster City Council. By law, the response had to
be prompt but no later than 11 June 2009.

Under the Freedom of Information Act you should have replied by
now, and are breaking the law.

Yours sincerely,

Blue

Link to this

From: Blue

28 June 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Westminster City
Council's handling of my FOI request 'Westminster ignores Eiger
Capital FOI request'.

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

Yours sincerely,

Blue

Link to this

From: Blue

3 July 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

As it seems that Westminster City Council have broken the law in
not answering this request I have passed this information on to the
information Commissioners Office for investigation.

Yours faithfully,

Blue

Link to this

From: FOI
Westminster City Council

7 July 2009

Dear Blue

Thank you for your recent request to the Council. Please accept my
apologies for the delay in responding. I can confirm that there has been
no communication from any Westminster City Councillor or their agents
(which includes council officers and/or any other agent of the council,
legal representative etc.) to the FOI team regarding this matter (FOI
regarding Eiger Ltd).

I hope this answers your query,

Yours sincerely

Catherine Preston
Knowledge and Information Management Team
Information Services
Westminster City Council
101 Orchardson Street
London
NW8 8EA
Tel: 020 7641 3332
Fax: 020 7641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]

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From: Blue

7 July 2009

Dear Catherine ,

Thank you for you reply, but I am afraid this was far too late in
coming, so I will be pursuing my complaint through the Information
Commissioners Office.

I see there are a number of FOI requests which have either been
ignored completely or have not been answered. It is my opinion,
since you have not made reference to it in your reply, that are you
deliberately not answering the FOI request made on the 9 April 2009
titled 'Eiger Capital ltd'. Even after I brought this outstanding
request to your attention it still remains un-acknowledged, and
this is not good enough if you are taking the FOI laws seriously.

So I feel an outside investigation may improve the situation for
the residents of Westminster.

Yours sincerely,

Blue

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Samantha Wade left an annotation (29 July 2009)

Westminster Claim that a previous FOI, http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ei..., was ignored because of spam filters in use. If that is the case, why is this FOI being ignored and why has this FOI got a response from Westminster?

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Nathen Brooke left an annotation (30 July 2009)

I find the answer given to this FOI by WCC as believable as the answer given to me claiming all my emails had been deleted by their spam filter. This must include the one you have sent pointing out my earlier FOI request which they responded too.

I look forward to reading the Information Commissioners findings.

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Blue left an annotation (19 October 2009)

Passed to Information Commissioner, and the following reply received on the 14 Oct 2009:-

"Your case has been allocated to one of our case resolution teams who will contact you as soon as possible to explain how your case will be progressed. Due to the volume of complaints we are receiving at present it may be several months before you hear from us."

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Norris left an annotation (26 April 2010)

http://nutsville.com/?p=2001 - An interesting post about Colin Barrow and Eiger Capital Limited.

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Westminster City Council only: