Darren Grimes Case and Appeal

The request was partially successful.

Dear Electoral Commission,

1. Please provide the total costs to the Electoral Commission for pursuing this case and the appeal.

2. Please provide copies of all invoices for costs of legal teams, professional and court fees as well as all costs and payments to parties involved in this case.

3. Regarding complaints of bias, process and waste of tax papers money, where should these be made?

4. Please provide your budget for the last two financial years and your management structure and staff numbers

Yours faithfully,

Gwen Swinburn

FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

 

Our Ref: FOI 066-20

 

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act dated 8
May 2020 and received by the Commission on 11 May 2020. You wrote
concerning the Darren Grimes case and appeal and asked the following:

 

1. Please provide the total costs to the Electoral Commission for pursuing
this case and the appeal.

 

2. Please provide copies of all invoices for costs of legal teams,
professional and court fees as well as all costs and payments to parties
involved in this case.

 

3. Regarding complaints of bias, process and waste of tax papers money,
where should these be made?

 

4. Please provide your budget for the last two financial years and your
management structure and staff numbers

 

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

You may expect to receive a reply sent from the Commission by 9 June 2020.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Zoë

Information Officer

[1][Electoral Commission request email]

 

The Electoral Commission

[2]electoralcommission.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Electoral Commission request email]
2. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/

FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear Gwen Swinburn,

 

Our Ref: FOI-066-20

 

Thank you for your email to the Electoral Commission dated 8 May 2020 and
received by the Commission on 11 May 2020.

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
has done so within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

Your request is shown below followed by our response:

 

Darren Grimes Case and Appeal

1. Please provide the total costs to the Electoral Commission for pursuing
this case and the appeal.

2. Please provide copies of all invoices for costs of legal teams,
professional and court fees as well as all costs and payments to parties
involved in this case.

3. Regarding complaints of bias, process and waste of tax papers money,
where should these be made?

4. Please provide your budget for the last two financial years and your
management structure and staff numbers

 

Our response is as follows:

 

We hold the information you have requested and I will respond using your
numbering.

 

1. You have asked for information on the total costs to the Commission of
defending the Appeal. Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
provides an exemption for information that is reasonably accessible to the
requestor. Below is a link to a statement which gives details of the cost
of the Appeal.

 

[1]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/m...

This statement has recently been updated and the figure for the
Commission’s legal costs will be updated when the final figure is known.
Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption for
information that is intended for future publication. Publishing the
updated information requires access to hard copy invoices and the current
Covid-19 emergency means that we do not have this access. The statement
will be updated as soon as normal working is resumed.

 

2. You have asked for copies of all invoices. The Commission is not
currently able to provide this information because staff do not have
access to hard copy invoices because of the Covid-19 emergency.
Unfortunately the Commission is unable to provide you with a date for when
this information will be available as we do not know when the office will
be opening again.

 

3. Our complaints procedure is also reasonably accessible at
[2]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/c....
The Commission is therefore using the section 21 exemption here too.

 

4. The Commission’s budget and staffing numbers for 2018/9 are also
reasonably accessible as they are contained in the in the Commission’s
Annual Report for 2019 which can be found at
[3]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s....

 

The budget for 2019/20 is contained in the main estimate which can be
found at
[4]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s....

 

There was also a supplementary estimate which can be found at
[5]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s....

 

As already stated, section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act  provides
an exemption for information that is intended for publication. The Annual
Report 2020 will be published in July and will contain information about
the Commission’s staff numbers for 2019/20.

 

 

I trust that this information satisfies your request. The Commission
strives to be an open, transparent authority, but in some circumstances we
cannot release requested information, and we ask for your understanding in
this regard.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please note that the
Commission operates a review procedure, details of which can be found on
the Commission website at:
[6]https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/f....

Please also note that if you have exhausted all internal Commission review
procedures and you are still not satisfied you have the right to appeal to
the Information Commissioner. Details of this procedure can be found on
the ICO website: [7]https://ico.org.uk/.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Officer

[8][Electoral Commission request email]

 

The Electoral Commission

[9]electoralcommission.org.uk

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/m...
2. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/c...
3. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s...
4. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s...
5. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/s...
6. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/f...
7. https://ico.org.uk/
8. mailto:[Electoral Commission request email]
9. https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/