Response Times

The request was successful.

Dear Edinburgh Council,

I am writing to make an open government request for all the
information to which I am entitled under the freedom of information
act. In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my
query as specifically as possible. If however this request is too
wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as
I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and
assist requesters.

The information that I require is what is the policy of the City of Edinburgh Council for staff to reply and respond to emails and letters and return telephone calls to members of the public, suppliers and contractors. If there is no policy please advise what would be reasonably expected.

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response
within 20 days. I would be grateful if you could confirm that you
have received this request. I look forward to hearing from you in
the near future.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Thorburn

Freedom of Information, City of Edinburgh Council

Thank you for your email. We are dealing with your enquiry and we will get
back to you as soon as possible.
Regards,

Customer Services.

This is an automatically generated email. Please do not reply to this
email.

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Freedom of Information, City of Edinburgh Council

Dear Ms Thorburn

Thank you for your request for information received on 14 September 2010.
I can confirm that this is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom
of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. As such the request must be dealt
with within 20 working days and provided in a format of your choice.

A response to your request for information will be sent to you promptly;
and in any event not later than 13 October 2010.

Your request may not result in us supplying the information you asked for
as the Act imposes certain conditions and exemptions on the information we
may supply. If this is the case, we will let you know.

It is also possible that the information you request is controlled by
different legislation. Again, we will write to advise you of this.
Finally, we may have to charge for the information we give to you. If this
is the case, we will write requesting payment before we release the
information.

If you require further information please contact us on Tel: 0131 200
2340. Further information on the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland)
2002 can be obtained by visiting www.edinburgh.gov.uk|

Yours sincerely

Mark Francis
Contact Centre Manager

Freedom of Information, Level 1 Chesser House, 500 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh.
EH11 3YJ.
Tel: 0131 200 2340. Fax: 0131 200 2341. Email: [Edinburgh Council request email]

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Freedom of Information, City of Edinburgh Council

Dear Ms Thorburn

I write further to your correspondence dated, 9/10/2010 to The City of
Edinburgh Council requesting a review of the handling of your Freedom of
Information request, Reference 167425.

Your request for review was received in this office on 11 October 2010 and
we will provide you with a response within 20 working days as provided for
under Section 20 of the Act.

If, after you have received a reply from The Head of Legal and
Administrative Services, you remain dissatisfied, you may ask the Scottish
Information Commissioner to conduct a review. You can contact him at:

Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Phone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [email address]

If you require any further information, please contact us on 0131 200
2340. Further information on the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland)
2002 can be obtained by visiting www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Mark Francis
Contact Centre Manager

Freedom of Information, Level 1 Chesser House, 500 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh.
EH11 3YJ.
Tel: 0131 200 2340. Fax: 0131 200 2341. Email: [Edinburgh City Council request email]

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Mark Francis, City of Edinburgh Council

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Thorburn

Thank you for your request for information received on 14 September 2010.
I have dealt with this in accordance with the Freedom of Information
(Scotland) Act 2002 and enclose the information you requested.

In answer to your query, I have attached to this email the Council's
Customer Care guide which details the corporate service standards for
responding to contact from our customers.

However, calls and correspondence received into the Corporate Contact
Centre are dealt with under slightly different and more robust service
standards. The Contact Centre deals with the vast majority of customer
facing volume transactions and has a target to answer 80% of calls
received within 30 seconds. In the financial year to date, all services
with the exception of Council Tax Enquiries have exceeded this (82.4%
answered within 30 seconds), with an average wait to answer of around 12
seconds.

Email and letters received into the Contact Centre will be acknowledged
within 1 day, and where an answer is not immediately available will be
resolved within 10. The exception to this standard is where there are
statutory timescales - for instance Freedom of Information, and Data
Protection requests.

If you are not happy with this response, or want to complain about the way
in which we handled your application, please write quoting our reference
number above, to The Head of Legal and Administrative Services, The City
of Edinburgh Council, Waverley Court, Business Centre 3.1, 4 East Market
Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG. E mail: [email address], within 40
working days of receipt of this letter, seeking a review of the response.

If, after you have received a reply from The Head of Legal and
Administrative Services, you remain dissatisfied, you may ask the Scottish
Information Commissioner to conduct a review. You can contact him at:

Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Phone: 01334 464610
Fax: 01334 464611
E-mail: [email address]

[FOI #46784 email]

Please note that the supply of information under the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 does not give you an automatic right to
re-use that information in a way that would infringe copyright. Further
information about copyright can be found at:
[1]http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/...

If you require further information please contact us on Tel: 0131 200
2340. Further information on the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland)
2002 can be obtained by visiting www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Mark Francis
Contact Centre Manager

Freedom of Information, Level 1 Chesser House, 500 Gorgie Road, Edinburgh.
EH11 3YJ.
Tel: 0131 200 2340. Fax: 0131 200 2341. Email: [Edinburgh City Council request email]

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/...

City Development FOI, City of Edinburgh Council

Ms Mary Thorburn Date: 29 November 2010

< [1][FOI #46784 email] > Our RFI ref SD.32/RLW

IN408674-175137
Your ref

Dear Ms Thorburn

FoI INTERNAL REVIEW IN408674-175137 [Details surrounding award of
contracts for 'PRIVATE PROPERTY REPAIRS: MAJOR REPAIR WORKS']

I refer to your request for a Review which was logged in the City
Council's Contact Centre on 11 October 2010 and to our telephone
conversation on Thursday 25 November 2010.

In the telephone conversation I confirmed that your request for an
Internal Review has been received by the Council. It has been allocated an
RFI reference IN408674-175137.

During Thursday 25 November 2010 I was not able to confirm which of my
colleagues has definitely been given your case to work on, nor where it
stands in terms of an expected reply date. On that day I did speak to the
Council's manager who has overall responsibility for the Freedom of
Information system within the Council. I relayed to you his view that the
Council hope to get a response to you during this week beginning Monday 29
November.

You brought to my attention that there are a number of similar
requests/reviews which have been lodged by people with the same family
name as yourself, or have the same workplace, and are due to be answered
this week, if not before. You expressed a wish that your request for a
review would be given priority.

The independent nature of the review process is such that I have no
control over the pace of that work, or how the work is prioritised.
However on Thursday last I did alert several colleagues about your
enquiries.

If you have any queries on this response do not hesitate to contact the
Council's Freedom of Information Team on Tel: 0131 200 2340, Fax: 0131
200 2341. E-mail: [Edinburgh City Council request email] .

Yours sincerely

R L WILLIAMS
PRINCIPAL PLANNING PRACTITIONER

Edinburgh City Council City
Development,

Business Centre G3, Waverley Court,

4 East Market Street, EDINBURGH EH8
8BG

H\word\FreeinfoOUT406100.doc, p.134

If you are not satisfied with this response to your enquiry about progress
with your internal review then please contact the Head of Legal and
Administrative Services, Waverley Court, Level 3:1, 4 East Market Street,
Edinburgh, EH8 8BG. E-mail [2]legal.[Edinburgh City Council request email] Please quote
RFI reference 175137

If, after you have received a reply from the Head of Legal and
Administrative Services, you remain dissatisfied, you have the right to
appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS

Phone: 01334 464610 Fax: 01334 464611 E-mail:
[3][email address]

If you wish to take up this option you should do so within 6 months of
receipt of the response from the Head of Legal and Administrative
Services.

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #46784 email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]

Michael Traill left an annotation ()

Looks like two FOISA requests for information are being sent to the same allocated email address!