FOI data for 2012-13
Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,Please provide the following information for the FY 2012-2013
1) How many FOI requests did you receive?
2) How many did you refuse?
3) How many were refused under the claimed "literature, jounalism, arts" exemption.
4) How many complaints were made to the ICO about your FOI
refusals?
5) How many complaints relating to programme trailers on BBC1 and
BBC2 did you receive over this time period?
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Roger Baillie
Dear Mr Baillie,
Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as detailed in your email below. Your request was received on 1st August 2013. We will deal with your request as promptly as possible, and at the latest within 20 working days. If you have any queries about your request, please contact us at the address below.
The reference number for your request is RFI20131120.
Kind regards
The Information Policy & Compliance Team
BBC Freedom of Information
BC2 B6, Broadcast Centre
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TP
www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2882
Dear Mr Baillie,
Please find attached the response to your requests for information, reference RFI20131120 and RFI20131121.
Yours sincerely,
The Information Policy and Compliance Team
BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room BC2 B6 Broadcast Centre
Wood Lane
London W12 7TP
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2882
Fax: 020 8008 2398
Dear FOI Enquiries,
You have failed to provide a reply to questions 3 and 4 in my original request. I have asked you how often the exemption relating to "arts literature or journalism" was cited. You have only stated a number "not covered by the Act" (in your view) which of course is not the same thing. If you do not have accurate figures, a sample of the last 100 declined requests will suffice for my purposes. Will you please answer, without evasion or circumlocution, my original questions. You have failed to reply to question 4. The high proportion of FOI requests declined by your department is in my view unacceptable for a publicly funded body and speaks volumes about your corporate governance. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
r. baillie
Dear Mr Baillie,
Thank you for your further email. I was sorry to read of your
dissatisfaction with our response. It may be helpful if I clarify that
"arts literature or journalism" is not an exemption. It is a derogation,
or an exclusion from the Act as set out in Part V of Schedule 1 of the FOI
Act. Information that falls within the derogation is excluded from the
Act, so when I refer to information 'not covered by the Act', this means
information that is held for the purposes of journalism, arts and
literature.
The FOI Act does set out a number of exemptions to the right of access to
recorded information conferred by the Act but these only apply to
information that is covered by the Act. That is, information that is not
held for the purposes of journalism, art and literature.
So to apply this to our response:
In 2012, the BBC received 1558 requests. Of these, 681 were refused and
550 of those refused were for information held for the purposes of
journalism, arts and literature and therefore not covered by the Act.
In 2013, 1107 requests were received. Of these, 501 were refused and 414
of those refused were for information held for the purposes of journalism,
arts and literature and therefore not covered by the Act. A further 63
are still open.
I note that the lines in response to your question on ICO complaints were
omitted. I can confirm that in 2012, there were 56 complaints to the
ICO. As of 31 July 2013, there had been 65.
We hope this information is useful.
Yours sincerely,
The IPC Team.
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