FIU Appraisal Criteria

The request was partially successful.

Dear Child Maintenance Service,

Please provide copies of the performance measurement criteria and appraisal criteria in use by managers and senior managers working within the "Financial Investigation Unit" of the Child Maintenance Group.

I have seen a copy of the DWP Fraud Investigations Staff Guide published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

Please provide an index of policies and procedures used by members of the Financial Investigation Unit when conducting "Complex Earner Investigations". I am not concerned with policies and procedures for suspected criminal activities so please confine your answer to materials relevant only to activities relevant to procedures used in the non criminal element of the FIU's work.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A.J. Wilson

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of Operations FOI Team, Child Maintenance Service

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Dear Mr Wilson,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 27
November.

Your response is attached

Yours sincerely,

DWP Operations FOI Team

Dear Child Maintenance Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Child Maintenance Service's handling of my FOI request 'FIU Appraisal Criteria'.

In the answer provided you make the following errors which I am highlighting:

In respect of the index of policies and procedures you claim that the FIU does not operate under any internal policies and procedures. I believe this to be incorrect as paragraph 1.1 of the CPIA code of practice says the following

"Persons other than police officers who are charged with the duty of conducting an investigation as defined in the Act are to have regard to the relevant provisions of the code, and should take these into account in applying their own operating procedures."

Thank you for the information on the course run by Portsmouth University however, as an external course it was not relevant to the content of the request.

Finally you say "With regards to your questions regarding performance measurement criteria, appraisal criteria , complex earners investigations, the Department does not release information in relation to investigation
and detection of fraud under section 31 (1) (a) and (b) of the Freedom of Information Act
2000. "

I would make the following points:

1. Section 31(1) (a) and (b) of the FOIA act provide an exemption from disclosure for the "prevention and detection of crime" and the "apprehension or prosecution of offenders".

2. I was very specific in limiting the request to "materials relevant only to activities relevant to procedures used in the non criminal element of the FIU's work" Section 31(1) can not be used to prevent disclosure.

3. Complex earner investigations are not fraud investigations and are now undertaken as a matter of routine.

4. Performance measurement and appraisal criteria are not subject to Section 31(1).

In any case, Section 31(1) is a prejudice based exemption and a public interest test must be completed. Your response makes no mention of such a test having been applied so you have utilised the exemption incorrectly in any case.

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

I look forward to receiving the materials originally requested in the interests of open and transparent government.

Yours faithfully,

Mr A.J. Wilson

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Child Maintenance Service

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of Operations FOI Team, Child Maintenance Service

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Wilson,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 20
December.

Your response is attached

Yours sincerely,

DWP Operations FOI Team

Mr A.J. Wilson left an annotation ()

This will be going to the information commissioner as the DWP are clearly lying about there being no policies and procedures.

Furthermore, they are misapplying exemptions in order to defer or delay the release of information.

Operations FOI Requests, Child Maintenance Service

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A J Wilson
 
Following your complaint to the information Commisioner, please see a
revised copy of your FoI request attached.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DWP Operations FOI Team
 
 
 
 

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Jonathan Allison left an annotation ()

Worth noting that in the original response to your request, the respondent erroneously referred to a piece of legislation (Policy and Criminal Evidence Act) that does not exist. The correct legislation is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

Gwynne Davies left an annotation ()

If the CSA/CMS/DWP/FIU have been spying [surveillance] on you, your employer and family & friends [eg looking in your employer bank account and clients accounts] - report and make a complaint immediately to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
They may be the same toothless tiger as the FTT and other institutions supposedly put in place to protect the citizen, but if you do not lodge the complaint within 12 months of learning about it they will throw the complaint out without even looking at it.
DO NOT RELY on the FTT or wait for the FTT appeal to end or rely on Rule 24 of the FTT rules [which are supposed to be mandatory].