Freedom of Information
Internal Review decision
Internal Reviewer
Lawyer – Legal Workplace and Information Rights
Reference
RFI20200110 / IR2020042
Date
27 August 2020
Requested information
On 17 July 2020, you requested that the BBC provide the following information under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’):
Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,
How many people have cancelled their tv license in the last 12 months starting from
June 2020?
How many people did you you prosecuted for not having a TV licence in the last 12
months starting from June 2020?
How many of these people had a lawyer or access to leagal aid?
How many of these people had a were single parents?
How many of these people had a were women?
Yours faithfully,
Sherlock Holmes
On 12 August 2020, the BBC responded that:
The BBC does not consider this to be a valid request under section 8 of the Act as
you have not provided what we consider to be a valid name.
For a request to be valid it must state the following:
- name
- address for correspondence
- clearly describe the information requested
- legible
- in writing
For more information and guidance about how to submit a request, please visit:
https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/
On 12 August 2020, you sought internal review of the BBC’s decision in relation to its
assessment that you had not made a valid request for information.
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link to page 2 link to page 2 link to page 2
The issue for review
This review is limited to deciding whether your request was correctly treated as an
invalid request for information.
Decision
I find that the original decision was correct and the BBC was right to refuse your
request as an invalid request under section 8(1)(b) of the FOI Act.
Relevant law
ICO Guidance explains that under section 8 of the FOI Act a valid request for
information must be made in writing and must include a valid legal name of the
requestor.
1 The Guidance explains the following:
For a request to be valid, the requester must provide enough of their real name to
give anyone reading that request a reasonable indication of their identity. This
means that if the staff processing the request cannot identify the requester from the
name provided, that request will be invalid.2
If the requester has used a pseudonym then their request will be invalid.
3 It is reasonable for the BBC to assume, without identification, that Sherlock Holmes
is not your valid legal name. It remains open to you to provide identification to
xxx@xxx.xx.xx sighting the RFI reference number if this is not the case.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you can appeal to
the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner’s
Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF; Telephone 01625
545 700 or
https://ico.org.uk/
1
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1164/recognising-a-request-made-under-the-foia.pdf 2 Ibid, paragraph 22.
3 Ibid, paragraph 28.
2