Thank you for submitting a request for information. We will respond to your request as quickly as possible, within the 20 working day statutory deadline under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For updates on this case, please quote your unique reference number 101000817808 .

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East Devon District Council
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Dear Mr Freeman,

Thank you for your request for information.  Please find our response
below.

1. Can you please provide me with copies of all formal policies regarding
how promptly FoI requests are answered? - FOI policy (attached)

2. Can you please provide me with summary statistics showing the
percentage of FoI answers provided:

Within 5 working days of the question being received; b. Between 6 and 10
working days of the question being received; c. Between 11 and 15 working
days of the question being received; d. Between 16 and 20 working days of
the question being received; e. Between 21 and 25 working days of the
question being received; f. Between 26 and 30 working days of the question
being received; g. Over 30 working days of the question being received -
Please see attached PDFs detailing the response times to FOIs logged since
1^st April 2016. The quarters per financial year have been colour coded.
This data was not captured prior to April 2016 in this way.

3. Please provide me with summary statistics for each calendar quarter
between 2010 and 2018 on the number of FoI requests received, the numbers
that were fully answered, partially answered or you did not hold the
information, and the number of questions that resulted in an Internal
Review request - Please see attached PDFs detailing the number of FOIs
logged since 1^st April 2016. The quarters per financial year have been
colour coded.

The PDF for 2016/17 only confirms if a request was answered or refused, no
other information was recorded during this time. The spreadsheets for
2017/18 and 2018/19 record if a request was answered or refused but we are
not able to confirm if one was partially answered, as this information has
not been captured.

To provide the requested data going back to 2010 would require and officer
to open each FOI request received to ascertain if it was partially or
fully answered, refused or not for EDDC and would take an officer over
18hrs to complete and is therefore exempt under Section 12 of the FOI Act
2000.  

4. Can you please provide me with summary statistics for each calendar
year from 2010 to 2018 showing the percentage of FoI Internal Review
requests answered:

Within 5 working days of the Internal Review request being received; b.
Between 6 and 10 working days of the Internal Review request being
received; c. Between 11 and 15 working days of the Internal Review request
being received; d. Between 16 and 20 working days of the Internal Review
request being received; e. Between 21 and 25 working days of the Internal
Review request being received; f. Between 26 and 30 working days of the
Internal Review request being received; e. Between 31 and 35 working days
of the Internal Review request being received; e. Between 36 and 40
working days of the Internal Review request being received; f. Over 40
working days of the Internal Review request being received - We have no
formal record of internal review requests received prior to April 2016.
Please see attached spreadsheet detailing those received since April 2016.
The quarters per financial year have been colour coded. To provide the
requested data going back to 2010 would require and officer to open each
FOI request received to ascertain if it generated an Internal Review
request and to ascertain when it was responded to. It would take an
officer over 18hrs to complete and is therefore exempt under Section 12 of
the FOI Act 2000.  

5. Can you please tell me whether there is any policy (either official or
unofficial) or process (either official or unofficial) which deliberately
delays the issuing of answers to FoI requests - either by delaying the
research needed to produce the answer (e.g. by prioritising other work
items first), delays answering departments in giving the answer to the FoI
officer or delays by the FoI Officer is responding to the questioner once
they have received an answer from the answering department? If so, can you
please give details of these policies or processes - No information held

6. In the event that the answer to part 5. is positive, please provide
full details of how this policy or process is applied, including any
criteria for selecting questions to apply it to - N/A

7. In the event that the answer to part 5. is positive, please provide
summary statistics - N/A

a. How many requests have been received and of these how many were delayed
in each calendar quarter between beginning of 2010 and end 1Q 2018 - N/A

b. Please provide a breakdown by department responsible for such delays
between 2010 and now - N/A

I hope this information is helpful but, if you feel dissatisfied with the
way we have responded to your request, please contact our Monitoring
Officer, Mr Henry Gordon Lennox, to request an internal review
[1][email address]

You may also approach the Information Commissioner for advice at
[2]www.ico.org.uk

Yours sincerely,

Sara

Ms S Harvey

Information and Complaints Officer

East Devon District Council

01395 571659

[3]www.eastdevon.gov.uk

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