FOIA and DPA/GDPR - Best and worst performing response from organisations

[Name Removed] made this Freedom of Information request to Information Commissioner's Office This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

Information Commissioner's Office did not have the information requested.

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

FOIA and DPA/GDPR - Best and worst performing response from organisations

==

FOIA and DPA/GDPR

Title within scope.

I understand that there are problems with the search facility on the Information Commissioner’s Office site. I’ve tried to find this information, as I recall that the Information Commissioner’s Office used to provide it - But I’ve ve drawn a blank.

==

Please could I read the Data that you hold on the ‘best and worst’ performing organisations in 2018 for FOIA and DPA/GDPR responses.

- Or March 2018 to March 2019 if this is not held in Year form.

I would prefer a ranked list of the organisations if this is possible.

- If the data is held in a different manner, I’d appreciate S16 help and advice, as the object of this of this request is to try and find out how different government organisations are performing,.

If there is a drop, or rise, in poor/ good responses - after GDPR, I would be interested to read of any impact in the accuracy of responses.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

AccessICOinformation, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days. 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

For information about what we do with personal data see our [2]privacy
notice.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
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Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

The request should be interpreted to Best to Worst, as all organisations should be listed, if possible.

As an organisation might be - say 11the the best (as an example-) but not feature in two short lists, rather than one longer one.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

AccessICOinformation, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days. 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

For information about what we do with personal data see our [2]privacy
notice.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
[3]http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...

Twitter

Find us on Twitter at [4]http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

 

References

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4. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Information Commissioner's Office

11 March 2019

 

Case Reference Number IRQ0820972

 

Dear [Name Removed],

I write further to your 11 February 2019 email in which you submitted an
information request to the ICO via the What Do They Know website. We have
dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
and our response is below.
 
Your request
 
In your email you asked;
 
“Please could I read the Data that you hold on the ‘best and worst’
performing organisations in 2018 for FOIA and DPA/GDPR responses.

- Or March 2018 to March 2019 if this is not held in Year form.
I would prefer a ranked list of the organisations if this is possible.

- If the data is held in a different manner, I’d appreciate S16 help and
advice, as the object of this of this request is to try and find out how
different government organisations are performing.

If there is a drop, or rise, in poor/ good responses - after GDPR, I would
be interested to read of any impact in the accuracy of responses.”

You sent a follow up email to clarify your request which stated the
following:

“The request should be interpreted to Best to Worst, as all organisations
should be listed, if possible.

As an organisation might be - say 11the the best (as an example-) but not
feature in two short lists, rather than one longer one.”
 
Our response
 
We have considered your request and can confirm that we do not hold data
on the best and worst performing organisations in terms of their responses
to information requests.
 
This is because we only hold data on the performance of organisations
where we have received a complaint about them. This means that we are not
able to provide a list of the best and worst performing organisations as
the data would be incomplete. For example, we may have received several
complaints about the responses of a particular organisation, but it may be
the case that they receive a large volume of requests and are actually
performing well when this is taken into account. It may also be the case
that we receive no complaints about an organisation but this does not mean
that they are performing well, rather that individuals have chosen not to
bring their complaints to us.
 
We are not able to provide you with a ranked list of organisations for the
above reasons.
 
You state in your request that similar information used to be available on
our website. I can find no record of this, however, previous versions of
our website are archived at the [1]UK Government Web Archive. You may be
able to find a previous version of the type of information that you are
requesting on an archived version of our site. If this is the case please
direct us to this and we can attempt to provide you with an up to date
version of the information.
 
As you are interested in the performance of Government organisations you
may find be interested in the data sets which we proactively
disclose about our completed case work. These data sets are available on
our website at the following link:
[2]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...
 
The data sets are published in a reusable format and include:

Our reference number for the work completed;
the type of work and legislation it falls under;
the name of the organisation responsible for the processing of personal
information;
the sector the organisation represents;
the nature of the issues involved;
the date the work was completed; and
the outcome following our consideration of the issues.

The data sets are currently published up to December 2017 and we are
committed to publishing the completed casework for early 2018 in the near
future.

This concludes our response to your request. I hope the information
provided is helpful.

Next steps
 
If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to
request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to the Information Access team
at the address below or e-mail [3][email address].

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request received
after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.
 
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please visit
the ‘Concerns’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.
 
A copy of our review procedure is available here
[4]https://ico.org.uk/media/1883/ico-review....
 
Yours sincerely
 
Joanne Wright
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6664   F. 01625 524510 
 

References

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Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

Thank you for your response but I was happy to give a clarification Of my request if you could not understand it.

Clarification:

You state:

‘This is because we only hold data on the performance of organisations where we have received a complaint about them’.

This. IS the data requested. ..

1. It is names of the organisations of which people have complained.

2. The number of complaints about them.

3. And the number that are upheld against them

4 And the number of complaints not upheld.

I must apologise, as I had expected a similar set of statistics would be gathered by the ICO, after reading the excellent Financial Ombudsman website, which is open and transient, so that the public can judge organisations listed in its table,

http://www.ombudsman-complaints-data.org...

And just assumed that the Information Commissioner’s Office would be similarly diligent in its attention be to detail.

- So if you hold stats in a similar sort of form to the Financial Ombudsman, I’d be pleased to read them.

However, if the Information Commissioner’s Office does not keep these sort of FO statistics on organisations and complaints made against them, and outcomes please advise how this data is held.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

AccessICOinformation, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days. 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

For information about what we do with personal data see our [2]privacy
notice.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found
[3]here.

Twitter

Find us on Twitter [4]here.

 

References

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2. https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/
3. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...
4. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

After wdtk message ..

Could you now confirm whether you hold similar the table stats to those on the financial ombudsman’s website, or not.

It would seem very odd that the Information Commissioner’s Office doesn't Know which organisations are it’s worst legal offenders.

Surely this sort of stat would be necessary to take any legal action?

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

27 March 2019

 

Case Reference Number IRQ0820972

 

Dear [Name Removed],

I write further to your emails in relation to your information request. As
you know I advised that we do not hold a list of the best and worst
performing organisations.
 
In your further emails you have explained that you are interested in the
following:
 
“1. It is names of the organisations of which people have complained.
2. The number of complaints about them.
3. And the number that are upheld against them
4 And the number of complaints not upheld.”
 
This information is held within the casework data sets which we
proactively publish on our website at the following link:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...
 
The data sets are published in a reusable format and include:

Our reference number for the work completed;
the type of work and legislation it falls under;
the name of the organisation responsible for the processing of personal
information;
the sector the organisation represents;
the nature of the issues involved;
the date the work was completed; and
the outcome following our consideration of the issues.
 
The data sets can be filtered and sorted by organisation which would allow
you to see the number of complaints we have received about any individual
organisation. The outcome of the case is also included in the data sets
and these outcomes are explained further in the following documents:
 
[2]Data protection case outcomes
[3]Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations case
outcomes

The data sets are currently published up to December 2017 and we are
committed to publishing the completed casework for early 2018 in the near
future.
 
The outstanding case work data sets will be published sequentially by
calendar month. Due to the number of cases and the detailed checking
required prior to disclosure, the January 2018 data set will be published
soon, with further data sets being prepared for disclosure thereafter.
 
I understand that you were requesting information in relation to 2018. As
explained above this information is intended for future publication and is
therefore exempt from disclosure under section 22 of FOIA, which is
explained below.

Section 22 FOIA

Section 22 of the Act states that information is exempt from disclosure in
response to an information request if:
 
“(a) the information is held by the public authority with a view to its
publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date
(whether determined or not),
(b) the information was already held with a view to such publication at
the time when the request for information was made, and
(c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should
be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).”
 
The exemption at section 22 is qualified by the public interest test,
meaning that the information should be disclosed if the public interest in
the maintenance of the exemption does not outweigh the public interest in
disclosure.
 
In this case, the public interest factors in favour of disclosing the
information are:  
 

* To promote openness and transparency by providing information about
complaint cases that have been submitted under the legislation we
regulate.

The factors in favour of maintaining the exemption are:   
 
 

* The ICO has a history of publishing this information on a periodic
basis and has committed to publishing relevant casework data sets
which will include the requested information in the future.
* To prepare this information for disclosure earlier than our intended
date of publication in response to individual requests we receive
would not be an efficient use of resources when we intend to publish
this information in due course anyway.
* Earlier disclosure is not necessary to satisfy any pressing public
interest at the present time.

Having considered the public interest arguments, we consider it reasonable
in the circumstances to withhold this information under section 22 of the
FOIA.
 
Next steps
 
If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to
request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to the Information Access team
at the address below or e-mail [4][email address].

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request received
after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.
 
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please visit
the ‘Concerns’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.
 
A copy of our review procedure is available here
[5]https://ico.org.uk/media/1883/ico-review....
 
Yours sincerely
 
Joanne Wright
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6664   F. 01625 524510 
 

References

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4. mailto:[email address]
5. https://ico.org.uk/media/1883/ico-review...

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

Thank you..

But according to the ‘open and transparent’ Information Commissioner’s Office , it appears that it has not published anything -such as a list that the public can understand (as the open and transparent Financial Ombudsman supplies) - SINCE 2017.

- Was there a decision taken to prevent the public reading this information?

If so, please can I read the justification, or committe decision , for preventing the public from reading this data.

==

Presumably some stats are held internally - or how would the Information Commissioner’s Office manage to deal with numerous complaints against the same organisations, as surely is a management tool to comply to one of its key roles?

Could you please confirm that there is no internal list of organisations which break the FOIA.

And explain how the ICO is able to find organisations, which break the FOIA, without a statistical basis.

- Because clearly the number of times organisations/companies break the law is evidence.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...

=

Or has there just been an oversight?

And are their plans for the Information Commissioner’s Office to once again allow the public to know the names of public organisations which flout the law, under the Information Commissioner’s Office ‘s transparency policy?

- It would only seem fair as it’s the public taxes which pay for the Information Commissioner’s Office .

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

AccessICOinformation, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days. 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

For information about what we do with personal data see our [2]privacy
notice.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found
[3]here.

Twitter

Find us on Twitter [4]here.

 

References

Visible links
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2. https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/
3. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...
4. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Information Commissioner's Office

9 April 2019

 

Case Reference Number IRQ0820972

 

Dear [Name Removed],

I write further to your email of 27 March.
 
As I explained in my previous email, the information you have requested is
intended for publication. There is therefore no decision which has been
taken to prevent the public from reading or having access to this
information.
 
There is a large amount of work required in order to publish the data sets
which contain the details of the complaints we have received. Although the
initial report is run electronically we are then required to remove any
personal data, remove any duplicates, complete any fields which have been
left blank and make corrections where things have been recorded in error.
This is a time consuming process which is compounded by the fact that not
only are we dealing with an unprecedented number of information requests
but the ICO as a whole is dealing with more complaints than ever which
means that the size of the data sets, and therefore the work involved in
preparing them for publication, is continually growing.
 
The internal list of organisations which break the FOIA is the information
contained within the data sets. If you are now only interested in
complaints we have received about organisations which have been found to
be in breach of the FOIA this information will be contained within the
Decision Notices which are published on our website.
 
As you say in your email the number of times an organisation is found to
have breached the legislation we oversee will be taken into account when
decisions are taken about further action such as monitoring the timeliness
of responses to requests for information made under the FOIA. However, we
also take other information into account such as evidence of a possible
problem with that organisation in the media, other external sources or
internal business intelligence.
 
I hope this information is helpful.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Joanne Wright
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6664   F. 01625 524510 

 
 

Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Thank you.. this response must have been lost as you have not addressed it.

Once again:
This is a request for data on the decision to stop producing the information data that you used to provide in the past ( which you have provided).

==

1. But according to the ‘open and transparent’ Information Commissioner’s Office , it appears that it has not published anything -such as a list that the public can understand (as the open and transparent Financial Ombudsman supplies) - SINCE 2017.

- Was there a decision taken to prevent the public reading this information?

If so, please can I read the justification, or committe decision , for preventing the public from reading this data.

==

2. Presumably some stats are held internally - or how would the Information Commissioner’s Office manage to deal with numerous complaints against the same organisations, as surely is a management tool to comply to one of its key roles?

Could you please confirm that there is no internal list of organisations which break the FOIA.

=

3 And explain how the ICO is able to find organisations, which break the FOIA, without a statistical basis.

- Because clearly the number of times organisations/companies break the law is evidence.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...

=

4. Or has there just been an oversight?

And are their plans for the Information Commissioner’s Office to once again allow the public to know the names of public organisations which flout the law, under the Information Commissioner’s Office ‘s transparency policy?

- It would only seem fair as it’s the public taxes which pay for the Information Commissioner’s Office .

Please note

Please just address the FOIA request has n the grounds that FOIA requests are not PR opportunities.

They are for existing data, on file - not newly written letters.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

10 April 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed],

I write to confirm that we are taking your email of 9 April 2019 as a
request for an internal review of the response we provided to your recent
request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
 
We will aim to respond no later than 20 working days from the day after we
received your recent correspondence.  This is in accordance with our
internal review procedures which were provided with our response.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Joanne Wright
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 414 6664   F. 01625 524510 
 
 

Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Thank you.

As stated I cannot understand why the Information Commissioner’s Office would have nothing in its internal files to assist caseworkers in determining how to investigate a case , when more than one organisation is involved.

It cannot be just a singular occurrence.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Please ignore the immediately above message. (Wrong request).

==

Can you please confirm that your review has ended and that the Information Commissioner’s Office management holds NO lists of organisations which can be have received the most complaints since it’s last publication of the lists.

And that there is nothing on file that explains the decision to cease the previously provided lists, which enlightened the public as to the work of the Information Commissioner’s Office .

And that organisations, such as the Cabinet Office, which featured on the list, made no representations , ( on ICO data files) to stop producing these lists.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Access Inbox, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days. 

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

For information about what we do with personal data see our [2]privacy
notice.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found
[3]here.

Twitter

Find us on Twitter [4]here.

 

References

Visible links
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2. https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/
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4. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Information Commissioner's Office's handling of my FOI request 'FOIA and DPA/GDPR - Best and worst performing response from organisations'.

Wdtk states: Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Information Commissioner's Office should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review

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

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Access Inbox, Information Commissioner's Office

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

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[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

I simply find it incomprehensible that Information Commissioner’s Office officers have NO idea of which organisations and authorities have the most complaints against them.

Information Commissioner's Office

29 May 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed]

I write in response to your emails, via the WDTK website, in which you
raised a number of questions and requested an internal review of our
response to your information request IRQ0820972.
 
My name is Ian Goddard and I am an Information Access Service Manager. I
have been asked to review the way we handled your request for information.
I can confirm that I have had no prior involvement in the handling of this
request.
 
I have undertaken the review and confirm that the request was responded to
appropriately. I will explain my decision below.
 
In your request for internal review of 9 April you made the following
points:

1. But according to the ‘open and transparent’ Information Commissioner’s
Office , it appears that it has not published anything -such as a list
that the public can understand (as the open and transparent Financial
Ombudsman supplies) - SINCE 2017.
- Was there a decision taken to prevent the public reading this
information?
If so, please can I read the justification, or committe decision , for
preventing the public from reading this data.
2. Presumably some stats are held internally - or how would the
Information Commissioner’s Office manage to deal with numerous complaints
against the same organisations, as surely is a management tool to comply
to one of its key roles?
Could you please confirm that there is no internal list of organisations
which break the FOIA.
3 And explain how the ICO is able to find organisations, which break the
FOIA, without a statistical basis.
- Because clearly the number of times organisations/companies break the
law is evidence.
[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...
4. Or has there just been an oversight?
And are their plans for the Information Commissioner’s Office to once
again allow the public to know the names of public organisations which
flout the law, under the Information Commissioner’s Office ‘s transparency
policy?
- It would only seem fair as it’s the public taxes which pay for the
Information Commissioner’s Office .

You sent a further email on the 14 April which states:

“Can you please confirm that your review has ended and that the
Information Commissioner’s Office management holds NO lists of
organisations which can be have received the most complaints since it’s
last publication of the lists.
And that there is nothing on file that explains the decision to cease the
previously provided lists, which enlightened the public as to the work of
the Information Commissioner’s Office .
And that organisations, such as the Cabinet Office, which featured on the
list, made no representations , ( on ICO data files) to stop producing
these lists.”

Our response
 
Firstly, I should point out that your initial request was for a list of
“‘best and worst’ performing organisations in 2018 for FOIA and DPA/GDPR
responses”. Following Ms Wright correctly advising you that we only hold
data on the performance of organisations where we have received a
complaint about them, you further clarified your request to be for:
 
1. It is names of the organisations of which people have complained.
2. The number of complaints about them.
3. And the number that are upheld against them
4 And the number of complaints not upheld.
 
Ms Wright again correctly advised you that this information is available
in our complaints and concerns datasets which we publish on our website,
and that you can filter and sort these datasets in order to ascertain the
number of complaints received and the case outcomes about each
organisation.
 
She also explained that the exemption at section 22 applied to the
datasets which had not yet been published (at the time we had published
information up to December 2017). I have considered the application of
section 22 and find it has been correctly applied in this instance and
that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the
public interest in disclosure.

Your grounds for internal review appear to focus on two separate points.
 
Firstly, that there must be a ‘list’ of organisations with the most
complaints held internally, in order to enable us to monitor the
compliance of organisations and to fulfil our regulatory function.
 
Secondly, that there was a decision taken to not publish the datasets, or
that representation have been made to not publish these datasets by
organisations such as the Cabinet Office, given that the latest available
datasets at the time of our response to your request was for December
2017.
 
In respect of the first point, we have explained that the information you
requested, (i.e. the number of complaints about organisations, the number
upheld etc.), is held within our datasets which are extracted from our
electronic casework management system. As explained previously, it is
possible for you to filter and sort these datasets in order to ascertain
the number of complaints received and the case outcomes about each
organisation. Although we do not hold a ‘set of rankings’ or a ‘league
table’ of organisations compliance with the relevant legislation,
individual departments within the ICO are able to extract information from
our electronic casework management system in the same dataset format as is
available on our publically available datasets; and much in the same way
you are able to filter the datasets to identify the most complained about
organisations, they can do so, should they consider it necessary.
 
However I would re-iterate we do not hold a central ranking, or list of,
the most complained about organisations. As explained on the complaints
and concerns datasets section of our website, we predominantly use our
casework management system to track and progress individual cases. We
don’t use this data in isolation to decide whether regulatory action is
appropriate in any particular case, but we might use it to help identify
potential trends or to see the size and progress of our caseload. The data
provided reflects the data on the date it was extracted and can be subject
to change over time. We should also point out that the number of
complaints we receive about an organisation will not necessarily be an
accurate reflection of their compliance with the legislation we oversee as
they will include cases where it is unlikely that the legislation has been
contravened.
 
In respect of the second point, given the comprehensive and detailed
response from Ms Wright on this matter, I find that your grounds for
suspecting we have taken a decision not to publish our datasets are
baseless and lacking in any real merit, as is the suggestion we have
received representations from organisations, such as the Cabinet Office,
not to publish this information. Allow me to be clear that there has been
no decision taken to cease publication of these datasets, and to confirm,
for the avoidance of any doubt, that we have not received representations
from any organisation, including the Cabinet Office, to cease publishing
these datasets. As explained by Ms Wright, the large amount of work
involved in preparing these datasets and the unprecedented demand for our
services in the past year has meant we have not met our targets for
publication. However, we have been working to resolve this, and you may be
aware that the datasets for January, February and March 2018 have now been
published, and work is ongoing in the preparation of the datasets for
April, May and June 2018 which should be published in the near future.
 
In conclusion therefore, I do not uphold your challenge to our response to
your information request. However, I hope the information provided above
is helpful.
 
Complaint procedure

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of this review you can make a
formal complaint with the ICO in its capacity as the regulator of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please follow the link below to submit
your complaint:

[2]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
 
Yours sincerely
 
Ian Goddard
Information Access Service Manager, Risk and Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Directorate
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 4146823  F. 01625 524510  [3]ico.org.uk  [4]twitter.com/iconews
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Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Thank you.

And I am indeed happier that complaints will now be published. Even if they are in no specific order.

At least it’ll go some way to matching the financial ombudsman’s clear and transparent handling of complaint cases.

However, please could you provide a link to these new datasets?

==

You will recall that I provided you with the FORM that the ICO used to provide complaints data in - as a guide the data that I assumed was still held, when the response seemed to imply that it was never held in that form.

Once it was accepted that it was, indeed, held in that form, the response was that it was stopped.

- My request was to know who, or which committee, made that decision, as it must have been made.

The response does not say that anyone, or any committee, ever made this decision.

Which I find extraordinary, as clearly it cannot have self-combusted.

Could you direct me to your response on this request point - in case I have missed it, before I further the request onwards.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

30 May 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed]

The link to the datasets has been provided to you previously by Ms Wright.

However, for your convenience they can be found here:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-inf...
 
With regards to your other point, I have reviewed your correspondence and
I am unclear as to what ‘form’ you are referring to that you say you have
provided and have been unable to locate any documents that match your
description. In any event, we have already explained, at length, that
there has been no decision taken to cease publication of these datasets.
 
There is nothing further I can add on this matter, and if you remain
dissatisfied, I direct you to the steps outlined at the end of my previous
email.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Ian Goddard
Information Access Service Manager, Risk and Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Directorate
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 4146823  F. 01625 524510  [2]ico.org.uk  [3]twitter.com/iconews
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notice
Please consider the environment before printing this email

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Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

A FORM similar to that produced by the Financial Ombudsman, which aims to infirm the public....(presumably you have not received this part of the request) .

Please confirm or deny (2) that the Information Commissioner’s Office holds no statistical lists internally, held by any management employees, including lawyers, on the numbers of complaints against organisations which lead them to assess that because of the number of complaints against certain organisations that the decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office must be one to prosecute.

******Could you please confirm that there is no internal list of organisations which break the FOIA.

Clearly, since the number of complaints must play a part to prosecute and are indeed published in press releases, I cannot understand how the Information Commissioner’s Office can operate without evaluation of the numbers of complaints.

1. But according to the ‘open and transparent’ Information Commissioner’s Office , it appears that it. has not published anything -such as a list that the public can understand (as the open and transparent Financial Ombudsman supplies) - SINCE 2017.

- Was there a decision taken to prevent the public reading this information?

If so, please can I read the justification, or committe decision , for preventing the public from reading this data.

==

2. Presumably some stats are held internally - or how would the Information Commissioner’s Office manage to deal with numerous complaints against the same organisations, as surely is a management tool to comply to one of its key roles?

*****Could you please confirm that there is no internal list of organisations which break the FOIA.

=

3 And explain how the ICO is able to find organisations, which break the FOIA, without a statistical basis.

- Because clearly the number of times organisations/companies break the law is evidence.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-an...

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

30 May 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed]

As I have already explained in my earlier response, although we do not
hold a ‘set of rankings’ or a ‘league table’ of organisations compliance
with the relevant legislation, individual departments within the ICO are
able to extract information from our electronic casework management system
in the same dataset format as is available on our publically available
datasets; and much in the same way you are able to filter and manipulate
the datasets to identify the most complained about organisations, they can
do so, should they consider it necessary when it comes to analysing and
evaluating compliance of organisations with the legislation. Once again, I
would re-iterate we do not hold a central ranking, or list of, the most
complained about organisations and neither has there been any decision
taken to cease publishing our datasets.

I cannot add anything further to my previous explanations and any
additional correspondence received from you on this subject will be read
and reviewed, but we will not be commenting further on matters we have
already fully responded to. 
 
Yours sincerely

Ian Goddard
Information Access Service Manager, Risk and Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Directorate
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 4146823  F. 01625 524510  [1]ico.org.uk  [2]twitter.com/iconews
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Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Then once individual employees have abstracted the information from the lists, requested data is held.

Please provide,

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

30 May 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed]

As has been made clear from our earlier responses, this is, in effect, the
same information as is available in our publically available datasets,
which you can manipulate and filter as you see fit. Therefore, for the
period up to March 2018 it is exempt under section 21, as it is
information that is reasonably accessible elsewhere, and for the period
from April 2018 it is exempt under section 22, as information intended for
future publication, as per the explanation provided to you by Ms Wright in
her earlier response to you.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Ian Goddard
Information Access Service Manager, Risk and Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Directorate
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 4146823  F. 01625 524510  [1]ico.org.uk  [2]twitter.com/iconews
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Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

You have made it quite clear that the data I requested exists.

‘individual departments within the ICO are
able to extract information from our electronic casework management system
in the same dataset format as is available on our publically available
datasets; and much in the same way you are able to filter and manipulate
the datasets to identify the most complained about organisations, they can
do so, should they consider it necessary when it comes to analysing and
evaluating compliance of organisations with the legislation’

I did not request the published lists.

Please provide this data, or retract your statement.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]

Information Commissioner's Office

31 May 2019

 

Case Reference Number RCC0836438

 

Dear [Name Removed]

I have provided you my final response in relation to this matter. There is
nothing further I can add. If you remain dissatisfied with our response I
suggest you follow the steps outlined at the end of our initial response
to your internal review request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Ian Goddard
Information Access Service Manager, Risk and Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Directorate
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 4146823  F. 01625 524510  [1]ico.org.uk  [2]twitter.com/iconews
For information about what we do with personal data see our [3]privacy
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Dear Information Commissioner's Office,

Then I will ask for a SAR privately - to make sure that you have, indeed, asked officers if they hold ANY individual comparative data of those organisations if which the most complaints have been registered,

Because simply I cannot see that the Information Commissioner’s Office can function as an organisation without some logical and useful hierarchical data on the subject.

- If you haven’t bothered to fairly respond to my request and failed to forward it to Information Commissioner’s Office staff ( particularly legal staff), to fulfill it ..by failing to ask any officers, who normally would be expected to hold comparative complaint Data, then I will complain to the PHSO.

Because a request must be considered properly. It’s just not enough to state that no employee, within the
Information Commissioner’s Office, holds any comparative data at all.

Yours faithfully,

[Name Removed]