National College for High Speed Rail Gifts and Hospitality Register

The request was refused by Department for Transport.

Dear Department for Transport,

Please provide copies of all gift and hospitality registers from the National College for High Speed Rail.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Amis

Dear Department for Transport,

I have not yet had a response to my FOI and this is now overdue. Please respond immediately to my request.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Amis

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Graeme Amis,

Thank you for your email of today.

We recently had an IT issue with receiving information requests from the What do They Know.com website. It looks as though your request dated 23rd July was caught up in this problem.

I will arrange for it to be logged and sent to the appropriate policy team now. I will ask them to provide a response as soon as possible but it might not be until the 20th September.

Please accept my apologies.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Governance Division, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Department for Transport

Dear Mr Amis

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information which
has been allocated reference number P0017724.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Governance Division
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Pocock,

Thank you for this. I am slightly confused though as to why you “might not be” able to provide an answer to this request before the 20th September.

The ICO guidance is quite clear that “Authorities should regard the 20 working day limit as a ‘long stop’, in other words the latest possible date on which they may issue a response” and in normal circumstances, FOI requests should be addressed more promptly.

The information I’ve requested (the gift & hospitality register for the NCHSR) is a key transparency document, whose very nature demands that it does not need to be redacted. As such, procuring this information should involve little more than a simple email to the NCHSR.

Thanks to your supposed IT problems, by the time of your last response, the request was already overdue, having been submitted 23 working days prior.

As such, I would hope that this simple request is expedited quickly.

Please provide me your explanation for this anticipated delay.

You may treat this as a new FOI request if you wish (in which case the recorded information I would expect would include, as a minimum, any correspondence related to the original request).

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Amis

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Mr Amis,

I have forwarded your email to our case handler and asked if it would be possible to issue you with a substantive reply before the 20th September.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Governance Division, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Lonita Vas, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Amis

 

Please find attached our response to your recent request under the Freedom
of Information Act

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lonita Vas

 

 

[1][IMG] Lonita Vas
High Speed and Major Rail Projects

Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR       
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk  

 

show quoted sections

Dear Lonita Vas & Mr Pocock,

I would like to request an internal review of this FOI.

The main reason being, I would like to understand why this information request was so delayed. I initially made the request on 23rd July 2019. On the 22nd August 2019 when this request was already overdue, I was informed that the information had been lost on the system and that 'it might not be until the 20th September'.

The ICO guidance is quite clear that “Authorities should regard the 20 working day limit as a ‘long stop’, in other words the latest possible date on which they may issue a response” and in normal circumstances, FOI requests should be addressed more promptly.

Please provide:
1. When the DfT first started searching for the information
2. When the DfT discovered it did not hold the information
3. The reason why it took so long to answer this request
4. Why the DfT expected it would take so long to answer this request
5. ALL correspondence related to this request
6. Any policy advice, memos etc which reflects or describes an internal policy to delay the answers to FOIs

Many thanks in advance,

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Amis

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Mr Amis,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for an internal review of FOI response F0017724. We aim to respond on or before the 18th October.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Governance Division, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Pocock,

Thanks for this. Please treat my request for further information in my previous email as a new FOI request which I would like to submit in addition to my request for an internal review.

Unless there is a very compelling justification, I would hope that this new request would be answered promptly, which is a clear requirement under the FOI act.

The ICO guidance is quite clear that “Authorities should regard the 20 working day limit as a ‘long stop’, in other words the latest possible date on which they may issue a response” and in normal circumstances, FOI requests should be addressed more promptly.

The ICO guidance may be found here: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

A very brief and clear explanation of responsibilities in complying with the FOI act prepared by lawyers Pinsent Masons may be found here: https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/ne...

As the guidance states:

"The obligation to respond promptly means that an authority should comply with a request as soon as is reasonably practicable," the ICO said in its new guidance. "Whilst this is linked to the obligation to respond within 20 working days, it should be treated as a separate requirement...An authority will therefore need to both respond promptly and within 20 working days in order to comply with [the FOI Act]. Authorities should regard the 20 working day limit as a ‘long stop’, in other words the latest possible date on which they may issue a response. It also follows that an authority which provides its response close to, or on, the final day of the 20 working day limit ought to be able to both account for, and justify, the length of time taken to comply with the request," it added."

With this in mind, please provide the information I have requested as soon as is reasonably practical. Please also 'account for, and justify, the length of time taken to comply' with this request, if you expect it will take more than a few days to give me a substantive reply.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Amis

Department for Transport

Dear Mr Amis,

Re: Parts 5 & 6 of your email dated 20th September 2019.

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information which
has been allocated reference number P0017858.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Governance Division
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Pocock,

Thank you for your reply, although I understand that you only intend to answer parts 5 and 6 of my request.

As is my right under the FOI act, I am requesting any recorded information which will help answer my request. For example, your response to point 1 may include phone records, which would reveal when the case officer first contacted the NCHSR, if it were the case that the initial contact was not by email.

Please let me know if you are doing your best to provide the recorded information you hold in respect of the entire FOI and not just points 5 and 6.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Amis

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Mr Amis,

I can confirm that parts 1 to 4 of your email dated the 20th September 2019 will be addressed in the internal review response. Parts 5 and 6 will be handled as a new request under case reference number F0017858.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Governance Division, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

show quoted sections

highspeedrail, Department for Transport

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Amis

 

Please find attached response to your request under the Freedom of
Information Act.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lonita Vas

 

 

[1][IMG] Lonita Vas
High Speed and Major Rail Projects

Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR       
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk  

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Amis

 

Further to your request for an Internal Review dated 20 September 2019.

 

Please see the attached response.

 

Kind regards

 

[1][IMG]          Deepak Patel 
Freedom of Information Adviser, Group Assurance 

4/32, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR          
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

 

show quoted sections