Copies of all FOI requests and responses since 1 April 2021

The request was refused by Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

For all FOI requests you have received since 1 April 2021 to date please provide:

1. An exact, word for word, copy of the request, excluding personal information which is undisclosable; and

2. A copy of your final response to each of the above requests (unless your response is still pending).

Please provide this as a pdf if possible, e.g. 1 pdf document for each calendar month.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Thank you for contacting the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s
(PHSO) Freedom of Information and Data Protection Team. This is to confirm
we have received your request. If you have made a request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or Environment Information
Regulations 2004, we aim to respond to your request within 20 working days
in accordance with the statutory time frames set out in both Acts. If you
have made a request for personal information held by the PHSO, your
request will be processed as a Subject Access Request under the provisions
of the Data Protection Act 2018 and we aim to respond within one calendar
month in accordance with the statutory time frame set out in the Act. We
may contact you before this time if we require further clarification or if
we need to extend the time required to complete your request.

Please note that we are currently experiencing a high demand, and might
not be able to comply with the statutory deadline for your request. Any
late responses can be referred to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

https://ico.org.uk/

For Subject Access Requests, we will send any personal information via
secure email, unless you instruct us differently. To access the
information on the email we send, you will need to sign up to our secure
email service. Details can be found on our website using the link below:
https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...
If you require us to post your personal information to you instead you
will need to inform us of this and confirm your current address as soon as
possible. Angharad Jackson Data Protection Officer & Assistant Director
Information Assurance Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman PHSO CityGate 47-51 Mosley Street Manchester M2 3HQ
[email address]

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

20/09/2021

Dear D Moore,

PHSO Reference 00000093

Acknowledgement of your request for information

Thank you for your correspondence of 18 September 2021.

Your correspondence will be handled as a request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We aim to issue a full response by 15 October 2021.

If we require further information or cannot meet this deadline, we will
let you know.

You may find the information you are looking for on our website as part of
our  [1]Publication Scheme or [2]Casework.

To find out more about how we handle your personal data and information
requests, please see our [3]Privacy Policy.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Team

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

References

Visible links
1. https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...
2. https://decisions.ombudsman.org.uk/
3. https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

14/10/2021

Dear D Moore,

PHSO Reference 00000093

Your request for information

Thank you for your correspondence of 16 September 2021 in which you
requested information from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
(PHSO). For reference, your request was for:
“An exact, word for word, copy of the request, excluding personal
information which is undisclosable; and a copy of your final response to
each of the above requests (unless your response is still pending). Please
provide this as a pdf, if possible, e.g., 1 pdf document for each calendar
month.”

PHSO response

PHSO holds information relevant to your requests, however it is exempt
from disclosure because it is intended for future publication.
We are not obliged under section 22 of the FOIA to provide information
that is intended for future publication. In line with the terms of this
exemption, we have considered whether it would be in the public interest
for us to provide you with the information ahead of publication, despite
the exemption being applicable. In this case, I have concluded that the
public interest favours withholding the information. When assessing
whether or not it was in the public interest to disclose the information
to you, we took into account the following factors:

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure

 Disclosure would improve transparency in the operations of the PHSO
 Disclosure of the information under FOIA would be consistent with the
PHSO’s commitment to proactively publish data on matters of a wider public
interest.

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information

 As the information is of interest to the wider public it is important it
can be accessed simultaneously by the general public rather than piecemeal
by disclosure to a small number of individuals under the FOIA. If we pause
the planned publication to respond to individual requests, this is likely
to delay the planned publication which will be accessible by everyone.
Therefore, it is in the wider interest that information is accessible to
the wider public by adhering to the publication schedule.
 Publication is planned within this calendar year (2021) and therefore
the public interest and the private interest of this requester will both
be met before Christmas 2021, a proximate and hence reasonable resolution.
 The evaluation of all FOIs is going through the standard internal
quality assurance checks and may be subject to further revision before
publication. It is in the public interest that the quality assurance
process concludes before making information available to the public.

We reached the view that, on balance, the public interest is better served
by withholding this information under section 22 of the FOIA at this time.

Right of appeal

Should you have any further enquiries about your information rights
request, please reply to this message or contact the Information Rights
Team at [PHSO request email].

Yours sincerely

Angharad Jackson
Data Protection Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
PHSO CityGate
47-51 Mosley Street
Manchester
M2 3HQ
E: [email address]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

For information rights enquiries, please contact
[PHSO request email]

Want to know more about your information rights? Read our privacy notice

Dear Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's handling of my FOI request 'Copies of all FOI requests and responses since 1 April 2021'.

Can you please give an approximate date when you think the information will be published and please provide details of where you plan to publish the information?

I have checked your website for earlier FOI requests/responses you have published but can't find any:

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...

You have previously provided me with copies of responses to FOI requests you handled between 1 April 2020 and 1 October 2020, which you assured me you would publish:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

If you have published these responses, please provide a link to them. If not, can you tell me when you plan to publish them? I do not mean to sound accusatory, it's just that I can't find the information on your website.

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

Yours faithfully,

D. Moore

InformationRights, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

Dear D Moore

PHSO reference 00000093
Internal review of your request for information

Thank you for your correspondence of 14th October 2021 in which you requested an internal review from the PHSO.

PHSO response

Request:

“For all FOI requests you have received since 1 April 2021 to date please provide:
1. An exact, word for word, copy of the request, excluding personal information which is undisclosable; and
2. A copy of your final response to each of the above requests (unless your response is still pending).
Please provide this as a pdf if possible, e.g. 1 pdf document for each calendar month.”

Response to your request:

PHSO responded on 14th October 2021 and refused the request under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Time for response:

PHSO responded within the 20-working day limit established under Section 10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Request for an internal review:

On 14th October 2021 you requested an internal review:

“Can you please give an approximate date when you think the information will be published and please provide details of where you plan to publish the information?

I have checked your website for earlier FOI requests/responses you have published but can't find any:

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/about-us/co...

You have previously provided me with copies of responses to FOI requests you handled between 1 April 2020 and 1 October 2020, which you assured me you would publish:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

If you have published these responses, please provide a link to them. If not, can you tell me when you plan to publish them? I do not mean to sound accusatory, it's just that I can't find the information on your website.”

Review of your request:

PHSO upholds its refusal of your request under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as the information is due to published on PHSO’s website in the near future.

PHSO intends to put a disclosure log of freedom of information requests on its website, and I can confirm the log will go back to 1st April 2021 and covers the entire scope of your request. There isn’t an exact date for when this will become live on the website, but the project is in progress and nearly completed.

When you previously submitted a request for copies of requests there was no disclosure log and no advanced plan to have one, so the exemption wasn’t applicable at that time. As events have changed it has become necessary to use an exemption to reflect that.

Public interest test –

o Disclosure of the information would provide transparency on how PHSO responds to requests. This provides more information about PHSO and increases the public’s understanding of how PHSO operates, which is clearly in the public interest.
o Requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are generally applicant blind, so any response issued to a requester can be made public

• The Section 22(1) exemption was created for a reason – to allow public authorities control over information which they intend to publish. PHSO intends to release this information in a disclosure log, which would provide transparency on its responses and increase the public’s understanding of PHSO.
• The information is currently going through pre-publication procedures, and it is in the public interest to ensure that this is completed so that the data is consistent.
• By placing the information on its website PHSO allows every member of the public to see the information, rather than restricting it to the scope of a request by a member of the public on the whatdotheyknow.com website.

Based on the arguments outlined above PHSO maintains the Section 22(1) exemption, and refuses the request.

Right of appeal

If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner will not make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the PHSO. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted at:

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

https://ico.org.uk/

Yours sincerely

Angharad Jackson
Data Protection Officer
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
PHSO CityGate
47-51 Mosley Street
Manchester
M2 3HQ

E: [PHSO request email]
W: www.ombudsman.org.uk

D. Moore left an annotation ()

'PHSO intends to put a disclosure log of freedom of information requests on its website, and I can confirm the log will go back to 1st April 2021 and covers the entire scope of your request. There isn’t an exact date for when this will become live on the website, but the project is in progress and nearly completed. '

I'll ask again next year if the information is still not published.