Pauline Lloyd, Solicitor for Cafcass

Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service did not have the information requested.

C. Smith-Byrne

Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,

Dear Sir or Madam,

On how many occasions has Pauline Lloyd, solicitor (Ewings & Co. Solicitors, London) been appointed by CAFCASS, year by year since 1995, comprising of all cases where the Guardian(s) Amanda Barden and/or Linda Clark has/have also been appointed. Please state in how many cases Pauline Lloyd has seen the children she was appointed to represent prior to the court hearing and in how many cases she has never met them.

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,

C. Smith-Byrne

Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

Dear C. Smith-Byrne

Please refer to the email below: I will not be able to process your request until proof of ID has been provided

If your name really is as stated I apologise in advance for any inconvenience that providing proof of identity may cause you.
Regards
Miss Jassal

Dear Sir/Madam

Under Section 8(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, an applicant must provide their real name for a request to be valid and fall under the scope of the Act. I have been looking at past requests and the use of aliases for requests for information namely...

Freedom of Information requests
I .Peroll CAF 236
D Ferguson CAF 242
S.Foster CAf 237
Ms Susan Web
Mr Brian Gerrish

I suspect that the name you use 'C. Smith-Byrne' is not your real name and that you are in fact utilising the names of various people some involved in children's social work as listed above.

Cafcass will therefore not proceed to consider the above requests, or any
further requests for information by you, or deal with any requests for
review until you are able to provide me with authentic identification
which verifies who you are, for example an original utility bill
showing your full name and postal address.

On receipt of such evidence, I will progress your requests and will of course be happy to return any
documentation to you without keeping a copy on file.
If your name really is as stated I apologise in advance for any inconvenience that
providing proof of identity may cause you.

If you are unhappy with this decision, and object to providing proof
that you are using your real name, you can appeal to the Information
Commissioner, who oversees compliance with the Freedom of Information
Act 2000. Details of what you need to do, should you wish to pursue this
course of action, are available from the Information Commissioner's
website http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Regards
Miss Jassal

Miss Jasvinder Jassal
Information Assurance & Data Handling Officer
Cafcass
6th Floor
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT

Email: [email address]

Fax: 0844 353 3351

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Dear Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass,

You are fully aware that your response is in clear breach of any citizen's right to obtain information under the Freedom of Information Act which is protected by the law. I am not identical with a single one of the persons you named in your "response" and cannot why any free citizen can be forced to send you photocopies of their passports for your own perusal. Are your superiors aware of how you interpret the Act and can you please tell me the name of your line manager since you have refused to follow the law on a number of occasions before (I have looked up the names you provided which in itself is ridiculous since these people are entitled to have their privacy respected).

Would you please now proceed to answer my question without any further attempts at delaying the matter.

Yours sincerely,

C. Smith-Byrne

Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

Dear Ms Smith-Byrne

Thank you for your email dated 27 April. To clarify my request: I do require further information from you before I am able to process a request for information, and I must request not only confirmation of your name but also a physical address to which the information may be sent.

Please note that section 8(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 states that a request for information is only valid if it is accompanied by the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence. An email address is not sufficient, as was made clear in the debates during the passage of the Bill through Parliament when the Government stated that the provision of an email address alone would not satisfy the statutory requirement for an address: may I refer you to Hansard HL, 14 November 2000, cool 184.

Section 8(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act requires "the" name of an applicant as opposed to "a" name, a clear indication that for a request to be valid, the applicant's correct name must be used; I have reason to believe that the name under which you are corresponding is not your correct name though as I have said previously I apologise if I am incorrect on that. However my reason for holding that belief is that the website "whatdotheyknow.com", as you are probably aware, contains details of previous requests for information that were made on the subject matter of your request, by persons whose given names I have listed in my earlier email to you.

I look forward to receiving the confirmation from you of (1) your land address, and (2) your name, in order that a request may be processed.

Regards
Miss Jassal

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C. Smith-Byrne

Dear Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass,

I am still awaiting the information requested and would expect you to adhere to the law instead of making assumptions that I may or may not be a "Ms" and the like. Would you please also tell me the name and address details of your line manager.

Amanda Barden, as you know, has finally left Cafcass in April 2010 and no longer practises as a social worker; therefore attempts to hide past mismanagement or misconduct may be wholly unnecessary.

I look forward to your response containing the required information.

Yours sincerely,

C. Smith-Byrne

C. Smith-Byrne

Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service's handling of my FOI request 'Pauline Lloyd, Solicitor for Cafcass'.

Please note that the person employed by Cafcass to deal with Freedom of Information requests has consistently refused to do his/her job (Is "Jasvinder" male or female?) with regards to a large number of other people's requests and instead turned the tables by accusing them of inventing names or attempting to obtain information they are not entitled to see. This is extremely worrying and I would expect to receive an explanation for why Cafcass believes to be above the law or why Cafcass believes this information should be brushed under the carpet.

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

Yours faithfully,

C. Smith-Byrne

C. Smith-Byrne

Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service's handling of my FOI request 'Pauline Lloyd, Solicitor for Cafcass'.

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

Please note that the Cafcass employee has refused to answer FOI requests on a number of occasions before, frequently quoting the same dubious (made up?) "laws" which only appear to apply to her, but no other authority.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

C. Smith-Byrne

Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

1 Attachment

Dear Mr or Ms C. Smith-Byrne

Please find attached a response to your request.
Regards Miss Jassal.

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Stewart Smith left an annotation ()

I cannot understand the CAFCAS response. Hansard (and the ICO)clearly say you don't need a genuine name in order to respond. There are some exceptions such as requests for personal data, but as a general rule the applicant can call him/herself Father Christmas (see Hansard)

Dear Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass,

With regards to the "number", the answer is yes. Would you please now proceed to answering the question in detail.

I am not surprised that you are "unable" to answer the other question and this is an issue human rights organisations and organisations investigating violations of children's rights in English family courts are fully aware of. The children do not only receive second class legal representation through court and Cafcass appointed solicitors but are also represented in the courtroom by duty barristers who, quite frankly, don't care the least bit about the outcome of the cases.

Cafcass has been "sold" to a major adoption agency, the third biggest in England with a multimillion pound annual turnover, in 2008, just 3 days after the adoption targets introduced by Tony Blair were abolished (officially called a "partnership"). This is incompatible with the statutes declaring them independent from any outside agencies involved with children. Cafcass officers now shamelessly parade their papers in folders emblazoned with the Coram logo in the courts and openly admit that their main interest lies in covering their own backs and telling judges what they believe they want to hear, not what benefits the child(ren).

I honestly admire your stamina working for such a corrupt organisation. Someone with half a spine would have long switched to a decent employer who genuinely represents the voices of the vulnerable and does not receive funding from adoption and fostering agencies.

I look forward to receiving your response.
I trust that you know that the person who left an annotation is absolutely right in what he says.

Yours sincerely,

C. Smith-Byrne

Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

Dear C. Smith-Byrne

Thank you for your clarification I will now process your request.

Miss Jasvinder Jassal

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Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service's handling of my FOI request 'Pauline Lloyd, Solicitor for Cafcass'.

Miss Jasvinder Jassal has now been refusing to answer my questions for several months in a row which seems to be how Cafcass generally operates these days.

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

Yours faithfully,

C. Smith-Byrne

Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

Dear C.Smith-Byrne
I believe there may have been some confusion with your two requests.
CAF329 and CAF379 - I have looked at the history of correspondence and will respond to you shortly.
Regards Miss Jassal

Miss Jasvinder Jassal
Information Assurance & Data Handling Officer

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Jassal, Jasvinder - Cafcass, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service

Dear Smith-Byrne

I have considered the past correspondence and it appears there has been confusion due to time lapses in correspondence from yourself as well my overlapping of your two FOI requests Caf 329 and Caf 379.
Please accept my apologies for this confusion.

CAF 329: On 18th May I responded to your Freedom of information request.
I can see from your correspondence on the Whatdotheyknow.com that you did confirm that you would like the following(with clarification)

Before I can answer this request, I should be grateful if you would please provide clarification. Please note that Cafcass does not appoint solicitors in cases, but the court does this in cases where there is a delay before a guardian is appointed. Cafcass officers do instruct solicitors to act on behalf of children however where a guardian is appointed before a solicitor for the child has been appointed by the court. Can you therefore please clarify: are you requesting “the number of cases in which Amanda Barden and/or Linda Clark have instructed Pauline Lloyd, solicitor with Ewings and Co., to act as solicitor for the child”?

1 On how many occasions has Pauline Lloyd, solicitor (Ewings & Co.Solicitors, London) been appointed by CAFCASS, year by year since 1995, comprising of all cases where the Guardian(s) Amanda Barden and/or Linda Clark has/have also been appointed.

I have consulted with the Cafcass Data Management team and can now confirm: Cafcass does not record who instructs the solicitor. Typically in the cases where Cafcass does not attend the first hearing, the judge appoints the solicitor. Cafcass does not record how many appointments were made by judges and how many first hearings Cafcass weren’t able to attend.

Do contact me if you would like to continue with an internal review of your request.
Best wishes

Miss Jasvinder Jassal
Information Assurance & Data Handling Officer

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