FOI procedures request

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Sheffield City Council should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Sheffield City Council,

Please provide the guidance and procedures used by council officers and other and any other parties related to Sheffield City Council FOI requests (including that used by contractors) relating to:

- responses to freedom of information requests;
- conducting internal reviews.

Please also provide any information held relating to rulings relating to FOI requests and internal reviews by the information commissioner’s office.

As guidance is likely to have changed over time please provide this information for current guidance and any previous versions from 2016 to the present date.

Yours faithfully,

Lee Armstrong

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear Lee Armstrong,

 

Thank you for your request for information relating to FOI procedures
which we received on 25/02/2022.

 

This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request and will be dealt
with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The reference number for
your request can be found above.

 

Please be aware that Sheffield City Council’s response to the global
COVID-19 pandemic has led to a reduction in resources across the Council,
meaning that we are currently dealing with a backlog of requests.

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 states that we must respond to you
within 20 working days, by 25/03/2022, but we kindly ask for your patience
as we anticipate that there may be a delay in some cases. Please do not
hesitate to contact us at the email address below if you have any queries.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [1][Sheffield City Council request email]

 

 

 

From: Lee Armstrong <[FOI #837067 email]>
Sent: 25 February 2022 23:58
To: FOI <[Sheffield City Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FOI procedures request

 

Dear Sheffield City Council,

 

 

 

Please provide the guidance  and procedures used by council officers and
other and any other parties related to Sheffield City Council FOI requests
(including that used by contractors) relating to:

 

 

 

- responses to freedom of information requests;

 

- conducting internal reviews.

 

 

 

Please also provide any information held relating to rulings relating to
FOI requests and internal reviews by the information commissioner’s
office.

 

 

 

As guidance is likely to have changed over time please provide this
information for current guidance and any previous versions from 2016 to
the present date.

 

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

Lee Armstrong

 

 

 

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

 

[2][FOI #837067 email]

 

 

 

Is [3][Sheffield City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Sheffield City Council? If so, please contact us using this
form:

 

[4]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

 

[5]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:

 

[6]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

 

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Sheffield City Council

8 Attachments

Dear Lee Armstrong

 

Thank you for your request for FOI procedures and ICO decision notices
dated 25 February 2022.

 

We are attaching:

o FOI Response Guide
o Freedom of Information - Standard Operating Procedure v5.7 January
2019
o FOI and EIR Knowledge Base and embedded documents:

(page 49 of Knowledge Base) SCC Environmental Protection
Service_Commercial enquiries_Standard_Full

(page 49 of Knowledge Base) SCC Environmental Protection
Service_Commercial enquiries_Standard_Reduced

o Freedom of Information Exemption Guidance
o Internal Review – Standard Operating Procedure v1.1 January 2019
o Sheffield City Council Intranet

 

We have withheld the names and contact details of staff under section
40(2), which exempts information of a third party. The condition contained
in section 40(3A)(a) applies that disclosure would breach one of the data
protection principles. The principle is that, “Personal data shall be
processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner...”
We do not consider that disclosing this information to you is necessary to
satisfy your information request. In the circumstances of this request
there is no strong legitimate interest that would override the prejudice
to the rights and freedoms of the data subjects. We have therefore taken
the decision that disclosing this information to you would be unlawful.

 

We are having a further trawl for information and have not closed this
request. We aim to finalise our response a fortnight today.

 

The information you have requested about ICO decision notices is exempt
from disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on
the grounds that it is information which is accessible to you by other
means. The information you have requested is available at the following
link:
[1]https://icosearch.ico.org.uk/s/search.ht...

Select “More filters” and then select Sheffield City Council in the filter
for “By authority”.

 

If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact us.

 

The information provided in this response is available for re-use under
the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0. The terms of the OGL can be
found [2]here. When re-using the information, Sheffield City Council
requires you to include the following attribution statement: “Contains
public sector information obtained from Sheffield City Council and
licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.”

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request, you are entitled to have this reviewed. You can ask for an
internal review by replying to this email. Internal review requests should
be submitted within 40 working days from the date of this response.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you
can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see
[3]https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/offi...
for further details.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [4][Sheffield City Council request email]

 

From: Lee Armstrong <[FOI #837067 email]>
Sent: 25 February 2022 23:58
To: FOI <[Sheffield City Council request email]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FOI procedures request

 

Dear Sheffield City Council,

 

Please provide the guidance and procedures used by council officers and
other and any other parties related to Sheffield City Council FOI requests
(including that used by contractors) relating to:

 

- responses to freedom of information requests;

 

- conducting internal reviews.

 

Please also provide any information held relating to rulings relating to
FOI requests and internal reviews by the information commissioner’s
office.

 

As guidance is likely to have changed over time please provide this
information for current guidance and any previous versions from 2016 to
the present date.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Lee Armstrong

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

 

[5][FOI #837067 email]

 

 

 

Is [6][Sheffield City Council request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Sheffield City Council? If so, please contact us using this
form:

 

[7]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

 

[8]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:

 

[9]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

 

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

 

 

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

 

 

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Dear FOI team

Thank you for the information provided so far for this request. It is really helpful to understand your policies and procedures in this area.

Can you tell me what is happening with the outstanding work to find further information? On 25/3/22 you wrote:

“ We are having a further trawl for information and have not closed this
request. We aim to finalise our response a fortnight today.”

This request is now overdue, please can you explain the delay.

Yours sincerely,

Lee Armstrong