Dear Homes and Communities Agency,

In response to FOI0001678 of May 2013 asking for access to the 2012/13 National Register of Social Housing the HCA stated that publication would be forthcoming.

The HCA published the 2012/13 National Register of Social Housing in June 2013 on the following link http://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/national-....

The register has unfortunately been provided in the form of several unlabelled large csv software files. This makes the data inaccessible to the public unless they have specialist computer software AND the detailed labels for the fields.

Most of the public will be interested in social housing in their own local authority area. Please provide access to the 2012/13 National Register of Social Housing by labelling all the files properly and disagregating the data by local authority area to make the files smaller. Hopefully this should provide the public with proper access.

Other alternatives to provide proper access for the public are acceptable.

Yours faithfully,

Ms M Jennings

Dear Homes and Communities Agency,

I have not heard from you regarding my Freedom of Information Request. The response was due by 30th May 2014 by law. Two weeks have elapsed since that date.

I would be grateful if you could inform me what is the reason for the delay?

Yours faithfully,

Ms M Jennings

Dear Homes and Communities Agency,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Homes and Communities Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Public access to the NROSH database'.

Despite a reminder that was sent to you when my request was already two weeks late, I am yet to have a response. The response to my request has been delayed even though I should have received a response by 30 May 2014.

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

Yours faithfully,

Ms M Jennings

Dear Homes and Communities Agency,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Homes and Communities Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Public access to the NROSH database'.

What do they know have advised that my original request was received by your computer servers. Following the intervention of the Information Commissioner's Officer the HCA acknowledged receipt of my request. The HCA has not provided an account or explanation for why the what do they know records indicate that the HCA did receive my original request but did not process it or given any reason for the delay. My request is now long overdue and as a result I am 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/p...

Yours faithfully,

Ms M Jennings

Dear Homes and Communities Agency,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Homes and Communities Agency's handling of my FOI request 'Public access to the NROSH database'.

I understand the difficulty in providing public access to information, which has been loaded into large specialist csv files. You state that NROSH is a legacy project. NROSH is a new project which replaced a number of local authority housing statistical returns, which were available to the public in the form of well-designed excel spreadsheets. I have been informed that it was the Tenant Services Authority, which was merged into the HCA, that implemented NROSH at considerable cost to the public purse, justifying the project because it would provide better access to the information for members of the public.

I do not understand if you are saying that there is an inherent flaw in the way NROSH has been designed as clearly these records were previously presented in an accessible form. I know that it is possible to provide a look up facility using macros for users to access subsets of data. This does not cost a considerable amount and would only need to be prepared once and could be reused for later years' information.

Given that the information was previously available in an accessible form, I would be grateful if you consider ensuring that it is once again accessible.

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

Yours faithfully,

Ms M Jennings