Withdrawal of appeal to High Court contesting Council Tax Summons costs

Neil Gilliatt made this Freedom of Information request to North East Lincolnshire Council This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

The link below contains documents in chronological order relating to an application to Grimsby Magistrates' court to state a case for an appeal to the High Court. The majority of the documents are held by North East Lincolnshire Council and were either delivered in person, posted and/or sent electronically as email attachments.

https://www.scribd.com/document/32322653...

DOCUMENTS HELD BY THE COUNCIL:

• Application to state a case dated 22 November 2012 (delivered in person)

• Cover letter and representations made on the 'draft case' dated 19 August 2013 (posted and sent as email attachments)

• Letter prompting delivery of the final 'case stated' dated 10 January 2014 (sent as email attachment)

• Letter querying non-delivery of the final 'case stated' dated 13 February 2014 (sent as email attachment)

• Letter requiring a Certificate of refusal to state a case dated 22 April 2014 (sent as email attachment)

Q. I would like disclosing any/all correspondence held by NELC relating to the documented High Court application contesting costs, being withdrawn as of 20 November 2013, as per the council's representations (witness statement http://tinyurl.com/j26x5ay ) considered by District Judge in the matter of Council Tax Liability hearing held on 30 October 2015.

Yours faithfully,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt,

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number NEL/2810/1617.

 

Under section 1 of the Act I can confirm that North East Lincolnshire
Council holds information in relation to your request.

 

As the information you have requested is about a living individual we are
unable to provide it to you. Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Act 2000
provides an exemption to the disclosure of information which is personal
data of a third party.

 

‘Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt
information if

            (a) It constitutes personal data which do not fall within
subsection (1), and

            (b) Either the first or the second condition below is
satisfied.’

 

The Data Protection Act 1998 defines personal information as 'data which
relates to a living individual who can be identified a) from those data,
or b) from that data and other information which is in the possession of,
or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller'.

 

The information you have requested would therefore be exempt from
disclosure if either of the conditions set out in sections 40 (3) or 40
(4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are met. The relevant condition
in this case is at section 40 (3) (a) (i), where disclosure would breach
any of the Data Protection Principles. The Data Protection Principles are
set out in schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

I have considered the eight Data Protection Principles and conclude that
disclosure of the third party’s personal information would breach the
first Data Protection Principle, which states that 'Personal data shall be
processed fairly and lawfully’. In concluding that disclosure of the
requested information would contravene the first Data Protection
Principle, I have taken the following factors into account:

 

1. The purpose(s) for which North East Lincolnshire Council obtained and
holds the information requested.

2. The third parties reasonable and legitimate expectations of what should
happen to their personal information.

 

Having considered the information involved and the purposes for which it
was obtained, I am satisfied that it is exempt from disclosure under
section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by virtue of section
40 (3) (a) (i). As this is an absolute exemption there is no statutory
requirement to consider the 'Public Interest Test'. The council's decision
is, therefore, to not provide the information you have requested.

 

As I have determined that disclosure of the information would be unfair to
the third party, I have not considered whether any of the other Data
Protection Principles would be breached by the disclosure of the
information requested.

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

 

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Dear PPD - FOI,

Please send the information to me privately which NELC has indicated it holds under the Subject Access Request (SAR) regime.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt,

 

You will need to complete a Subject Access Request Form which can be found
on our website.

 

[1]https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council-infor...

 

Yours Sincerely on behalf on North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

 

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Dear PPD - FOI,

I'd like to make sure before I submit a SAR that the information provided won't solely be that which the document relates (below link), especially considering I will potentially have a 40 working days wait to obtain it.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/288210371/NEL...

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

Dear North East Lincolnshire Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of North East Lincolnshire Council's handling of my FOI request 'Withdrawal of appeal to High Court contesting Council Tax Summons costs'.

North East Lincolnshire Council has incorrectly dealt with this request on account of the council not holding the information requested.

North East Lincolnshire Council was wrong in confirming that it held the information. The council was under a duty to comply with subsection (1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act which was to deny it held the information requested.

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

Yours faithfully,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt,

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your correspondence and wish to confirm that
an Internal Review of the handling of your Information Request
NEL/2810/1617 is to take place.

 

The Internal Review has been passed to the relevant department for
processing and you can expect your response within the 20 working day
limit. If it will take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you,
we will inform you of this and provide you with the expected date for
receiving a response.

 

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:
[1]https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council-infor....

 

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

 

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt 

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request NEL/2810/1617,
concerning a court application.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find that
your request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act, and the application of an exemption under section 40 (1)
was correctly applied.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Feedback Officer

 

 

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Dear PPD - FOI,

The documented High Court application contesting costs has never been withdrawn, therefore North East Lincolnshire Council does not hold any information in connection with that appeal being withdrawn. North East Lincolnshire Council was wrong to have confirmed that it held the information.

Why are you intent on being obstructive and wasting resources, not only of NELC but also the Information Commissioner's Office?

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt

 

Further to your correspondence concerning the information that would be
provided in response to a Subject Access Request, it is not possible at
this time to confirm what information is held or would be provided in
response to the request. This information would only be identified after a
request is submitted and relevant searches commenced for the information
held in respect of it.

 

Yours Sincerely on behalf on North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

 

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Neil Gilliatt (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

Complaint sent to Information Commissioner's Office about North East Lincolnshire Council failing to deal with my FoI request properly.

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane, Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

9 September 2016

Dear Sir/Madam

RE: INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF FOI REQUEST TO NE LINCS COUNCIL – REF NUMBER: 2810-1617

I made a freedom of information request to North East Lincolnshire Council (‘NELC’). The details can be found on the “what do they know” website at the following address:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...
“Withdrawal of appeal to High Court contesting Council Tax Summons costs”

INTRODUCTION

Freedom of Information laws have in this request admittedly been used unconventionally. The purpose being to mandate NELC under subsection (1)(a) of s1 of the Freedom of Information Act to deny it held the information requested. I have resorted to the approach as a consequence, in the first instance, after being met with dishonesty by NELC and secondly being let down by the relevant authorities (Police, Local Government Ombudsman and judges) for turning a blind eye.

Denying that it held the information requested would reinforce further my allegations that NELC had lied in a written statement to the court. It would seem sensible to take advantage of Freedom of Information laws which I believe require public bodies to be honest when responding to requests.

BACKGROUND

NELC [REDACT] misallocated payments intended to reduce the indebtedness of the council tax account which was current at the time of payment, to a sum outstanding from the 2012/13 tax year thus engineering default. NELC subsequently applied to Grimsby Magistrates’ court for a liability order for non-payment of council tax. The outstanding sum from the 2012/13 tax year corresponded to disputed court costs which are under appeal to the High Court. NELC had suspended recovery of the sum pending the court's decision and were therefore unjustified in engineering default by allocating payment to that sum as the case has yet to be determined. The appeal has never withdrawn and consequently the amount still in dispute.

NELC served court papers by electronic transfer on myself and the Magistrates court prior to the 30 October 2015 court hearing. The Witness Statement caused me to suspect a deliberate intent to deceive the court. That concern, which was NELC stating that it ‘had no further reason to believe that the costs were being disputed’ was specifically documented in my representations dated 29 October, in which the claim was also contended.

NELC had supported its decision to allocate payment to the disputed costs based upon its claim that it believed the High Court appeal had been withdrawn therefore the suspension to collect the costs lifted. It is inconceivable that NELC honestly believed this which is backed up by the exhibits supporting its Witness statement.

The documents referred to in the request (attached [ http://tinyurl.com/jgallf5 ]) relating to the application to the court for an appeal to the High Court further support the assertion that NELC could not honestly have believed the appeal had been withdrawn. NELC held key documents which were either delivered in person, posted etc., clearly indicated that the appeal was still being pursued yet the date from which they understood the appeal had been withdrawn was around 5 months prior to the last record I hold of sending correspondence to the council in the matter.

The misallocated payments were supported by NELC on the basis that it believed the appeal had been withdrawn, and on that basis alone, and because no assistance is being offered by the relevant authorities who should be addressing this I am left to fight to expose the truth by whatever means are available.

FOI REQUEST – 7 SEPTEMBER 2016

The Council was asked to disclose the correspondence relating to the High Court application contesting costs, being withdrawn as follows:

The link below contains documents in chronological order relating to an application to Grimsby Magistrates' court to state a case for an appeal to the High Court. The majority of the documents are held by North East Lincolnshire Council and were either delivered in person, posted and/or sent electronically as email attachments.

https://www.scribd.com/document/32322653...

DOCUMENTS HELD BY THE COUNCIL:

• Application to state a case dated 22 November 2012 (delivered in person)

• Cover letter and representations made on the 'draft case' dated 19 August 2013 (posted and sent as email attachments)

• Letter prompting delivery of the final 'case stated' dated 10 January 2014 (sent as email attachment)

• Letter querying non-delivery of the final 'case stated' dated 13 February 2014 (sent as email attachment)

• Letter requiring a Certificate of refusal to state a case dated 22 April 2014 (sent as email attachment)

Q. I would like disclosing any/all correspondence held by NELC relating to the documented High Court application contesting costs, being withdrawn as of 20 November 2013, as per the council's representations (witness statement http://tinyurl.com/j26x5ay ) considered by District Judge in the matter of Council Tax Liability hearing held on 30 October 2015.

RESPONSE – 7 SEPTEMBER 2016

NELC confirmed (under s1 of the FOIA) that it held information relating to the request but as the information requested was about a living individual it was unable to provide it, citing s40 (2) of the FOIA that provides an exemption to the disclosure of information which is personal data of a third party.

REQUEST FOR INTERNAL REVIEW – 8 SEPTEMBER 2016

It was expressed to NELC that it had incorrectly dealt with the request on account of the council not holding the information requested. It was wrong in confirming that it held the information. The council was under a duty to comply with subsection (1)(a) of s1 of the FOIA which was to deny it held the information requested.

RESPONSE TO INTERNAL REVIEW – 8 SEPTEMBER 2016

The response and the handling of the request were determined to have been in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and the application of an exemption was correctly applied.

Yours sincerely

Dear PPD - FOI,

I have visited the relevant page on the Council's website and in order to submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) the applicant is required to pay a fee of £10 by either cheque or Postal Orders made payable to North East Lincolnshire Council.

I'm asking for information about someone or some persons employed by the council who have committed a criminal offence against me and would not expect to be further financially burdened with an application fee. NELC has cost me hundreds of thousands of pounds through its corruption and negligence already and in any event my taxes should pay for this kind of service.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

Dear PPD - FOI,

In your 8 September 2016 response (internal review) you have expressed that the handling of the request was in accordance with the FOIA and the application of an exemption under section 40 (1) was correctly applied.

I am bringing it to your attention that in the original response the exemption applied was under section 40 (2).

I considered this just a typo at first and didn't mention it, but on second thoughts it may be best to clarify the matter to avoid any hold-ups as I anticipate the Information Commissioner will not overlook it.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt

 

Further to your correspondence of September 8th and 10th, I am pleased to
provide the following:

 

08/09/2016 - The documented High Court application contesting costs has
never been withdrawn, therefore North East Lincolnshire Council does not
hold any information in connection with that appeal being withdrawn. North
East Lincolnshire Council was wrong to have confirmed that it held the
information

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

10/09/2016 – The 8 September 2016 internal review response stated an
application was made under section 40 (1), while the original response
stated an exemption applied was under section 40 (2).

 

The internal review response incorrectly stated section 40 (1) rather than
section 40 (2) please accept the Council’s apology for this. The response
should have stated the following:

Further to your request an Internal Review has taken place into North East
Lincolnshire Council's handling of your information request NEL/2810/1617,
concerning a court application.

I have reviewed the response provided to you and the handling of your
request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and find that
your request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act, and the application of an exemption under section 40 (2)
was correctly applied.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt

 

If you wish to make a Subject Access Request to North East Lincolnshire
Council then you will need to comply with the established procedures in
place for the making of requests, this includes the payment of a £10 fee.

 

Yours Sincerely on behalf on North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

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Dear PPD - FOI,

There was a time when the Council would comply with a SAR at no cost to the applicant. Why has that changed? Moreover, why is NELC encouraging me to waste £10 to apply for information it knows is not held because the documented High Court application contesting costs has never been withdrawn.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Gilliatt

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt,

 

I am pleased to acknowledge your request for information, which has been
allocated the reference number NEL/2907/1617.

Your request has been passed to the relevant department for processing and
you can expect your response within the 20 working day limit. If it will
take us longer than 20 working days to respond to you, we will inform you
of this and provide you with the expected date for receiving a response.

Further information about how we will deal with your Freedom of
Information requests is available on our website at:

[1]https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council-infor....

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information or
assistance quoting the reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

 

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PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt 

 

Thank you for your information request, reference number NEL/2907/1617,
which asked ‘there was a time when the Council would comply with a SAR at
no cost to the applicant. Why has that changed? Moreover, why is NELC
encouraging me to waste £10 to apply for information it knows is not held
because the documented High Court application contesting costs has never
been withdrawn.’

 

I wish to confirm that North East Lincolnshire Council holds the following
recorded information in relation to your request:

 

The application of a £10 fee in relation to Subject Access Requests is in
accordance with the Council’s Charging Policy, which is available on our
website
[1]https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/council-infor...

 

Where a request for information is made, the Council will provide the
applicant with the relevant advice and assistance on the most appropriate
method of requesting the information they seek. Where an applicant is
asking for information in relation to themselves, these requests should be
made under section 7 of the Data Protection Act. North East Lincolnshire
Council will not know what information is held, if any, until a valid
request is made and searches are commenced for the required information.

 

If you wish to make enquiries or have queries in relation to the services
you receive from the Council, then you can contact the relevant service
directly. Contact details for Council services can be found on our website
[2]https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/

 

If you believe that your request for information has not been handled in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, you have the right to
request an internal review by the Council. Please be clear about which
elements of the Council’s response or handling of the request you are
unhappy with, and would like the Council to address during the internal
review process.  If following this you are still dissatisfied you may
contact the Office of the Information Commissioner. If you wish to request
an internal review, please contact me and I will make the necessary
arrangements.

 

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

 

Feedback Officer

 

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Neil Gilliatt (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

From: casework@ico.org.uk
To: 'Neil'
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016
Subject: ICO apology - delay[Ref. FS50645708]

16th December 2016

Case Reference Number FS50645708

Dear Mr Gilliatt

Your ref: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...

YOUR INFORMATION REQUEST TO NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL

Further to our previous correspondence, I am sorry to advise you that we have not yet allocated your complaint to a caseworker.

I sincerely apologise for the delay. However we are dealing with our outstanding complaints as quickly as we can. In the interests of fairness, we usually deal with complaints in chronological order.

We are also working hard to find new ways to speed up our complaints handling. For example, we are reviewing the efficiency of our internal processes and we are continuing to work with organisations to encourage them to resolve disputes informally, where it is appropriate to do so.

I appreciate you will be disappointed by this delay. If your case has not been allocated to a case officer in the next 12 weeks, we will write to update you further.

Sent on behalf of

Group Manager
Information Commissioner’s Office

PPD - FOI, North East Lincolnshire Council

Dear Mr Gilliatt 

On 7 September 2016, you made a request to North East Lincolnshire Council
reference NEL/2810/1617 asking ‘I would like disclosing any/all
correspondence held by NELC relating to the documented High Court
application contesting costs, being withdrawn as of 20 November 2013, as
per the council's representations (witness statement
[1]http://tinyurl.com/j26x5ay ) considered by District Judge in the matter
of Council Tax Liability hearing held on 30 October 2015.’

North East Lincolnshire Council refused this request by virtue of section
40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act.

Following further consideration of request NEL/2810/1617, North East
Lincolnshire Council are withdrawing the earlier refusal notice on the
basis of section 40 (2), and replacing this with a refusal of your request
NEL/2810/1617 on the basis of section 14 (1) of the Freedom of Information
Act. Section 14 (1) states that ‘Section 1(1) does not oblige a public
authority to comply with a request for information if the request is
vexatious’.    

Request NEL/2810/1617, as with previous requests made is deemed to be part
of a concerted campaign intended to frustrate and challenge our ability to
effectively administer and collect Council Tax, which places both an
unjustified and disproportionate demand on the Council’s resources with no
intention to obtain information.

If you remain dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of your request, or
the decision of the internal review you can request an independent review
by contacting the Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely on behalf of North East Lincolnshire Council

Feedback Officer

 

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