Gagging Orders in Secret Family Courts

Mrs Docherty made this Freedom of Information request to Isle of Anglesey County Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

In the wake of the people speaking out against the abuses of the
secret family courts and forced adoption of children to strangers,
instead of being retained within their real natural families. I
would like to know how your authority compares to others in
fulfilling your responsibilities to families & their children.

(a) How many individuals have been taken to court by your authority
in-order to gag them. To stop them from speaking out about the
injustices they have suffered at the hands of the council
children's social services and secret family courts. Provide all
records to-date that are held.

(b) How much did these gagging order injunctions cost the rate
payer.

(c) Who is responsible for actioning these enforcement orders by
the council, i.e. who signs the applications for court.

(d) How many parents /relatives/individuals have received further
sanctions for breaking these gagging orders.

(e) Are any of these decisions to gag/sanction taken by unelected
local authority officers responsible for children’s social care,
finance, legal or any other relevant department.

(f) If councillors make these decisions at which meeting(s) are
these discussed.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Docherty

LEGA LPOLICY CYFRAITH POLISI,

Thank you for your request for information held by Isle of Anglesey
County Council. However, in order to process your request we require
your full name, in accordance with the recent guidance produced by the
Information Commissioner. Section 8(1) of the FOIA sets out the
requirements of a valid request for information and says that a request
must, amongst other things, “state the name of the applicant and an
address for correspondence”.

In the guidance, the Commissioner states that the title and/or first
name with surname satisfies the requirement for provision of a real
name. The prime consideration is whether 'enough of a person’s full
name has been provided to give a reasonable indication of that
person’s identity'. It is likely that the Information Commissioner
would not consider an appeal against a public authority's refusal notice
(should one be issued) unless the applicant had employed their full
name. The Guidance may be found at:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

For future reference, access to information enquiries may be submitted
directly to this Council via [email address]. If you do not
wish to publish your full name on the website you may wish to contact me
directly at this email address.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

Huw Pierce Pritchard

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Dear Huw Pierce Pritchard

Please refer to the guidance that has been satisfied.:

In the guidance, the Commissioner states that the 'Title AND/OR first name with surname' satisfies the requirement for provision of a real name.

Your Faithfully,

Mrs Docherty

LEGA LPOLICY CYFRAITH POLISI,

Dear Mrs Docherty

Thank you for your message.

Our aim is to facilitate access to information, and not to appear
obstructive. I acknowledge that the FOIA regime is not concerned with
the identity of the requestor to an exacting degree. Indeed, the
principle that the legislation is person and purpose blind is important.
However, I would maintain that the full name is relevant in certain
circumstances, which the Guidance below refers to but does not expand
upon.

The full name would be required when determining whether to aggregate
costs for two or more requests in accordance with the Fees Regulations.
It is not unreasonable to suppose that a public authority could receive
two requests from different requestors with the same title and surname,
but different, undisclosed first names. Under such circumstances, it
would be difficult to ascertain whether or not an applicant has
submitted enquiries on previous occasions unless the full name was
provided.

Also, there are instances where a person may request information, which
would be exempt information under the personal data exemption of the
Act, but which that person would be entitled to receive as the data
subject. Under such circumstances, providing the public authority with
the full name could be beneficial to the requestor.

However, I would prefer not to expend your time in further discussion
of this issue, and have passed your request on to the relevant service.

Sincerely

Huw Pierce Pritchard

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EMMA JONES,

** High Priority **

Dear Mrs Docherty
Thank you for your request for information.
Having carried out the appropriate enquiries with both the Head of Children's Services and our Legal Department, I can confirm that we have NO cases where individuals have been taken to court by our Authority in order to gag them.

The further five questions are therefore irrelevant.

Regards
Emma Jones
Compliance Officer

Emma J Jones

Rheolwr Cefnogi Busnes / Business Support Manager
Adran Tai a Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol / Housing and Social Services Department
01248 751887

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