Working Group involving LGA and Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) (Home Office 15/03/09)

Waiting for an internal review by Home Office of their handling of this request.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Further to your recent letter, extract below, can you please email me an electronic copy of the following information:

1)The names of the individuals who make up this Working Group and which organisation they represent, alongside details of the role they have in the group, eg Chair, Admin, Minute taker etc

2)A list of dates and venues when this Working Group has met and details of all future meeting dates and venues

3)Minutes of all meeting held by this Working Group

4)A summary of the remit of this Working Group

5)Full text copies of all Reports, Memos, Briefing and any other Documents distributed to members of this Working Group by anyone in this Working Group

6)Full text copies of all meeting/workshop invitation letters, emails and attachments sent out to this Working Group

If you decide that any of the requested information is to be exempted, please provide a summary list of the exempted information, a summary which explains the content of the exempted information, it's author, date of production, how many pages it is made up of an in what electronic or other format you hold this information.

Extract from said letter:

“UASC reform program Becoming a specialist authority
...some way to mitigating the main concern local authorities has about had about becoming involved, eg post 18 funding. UKBA is setting up a Working Group involving LGA and Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) to deal further with this issue”
Letter to Chief Executives 28 August 2008,
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/81...
(Warning: PDF file)

Plus please provide any information you hold

Please provide the requested information, via email in electronic format, to my @whatdotheyknow.com address, in the original MS Word or plain text format if available, or alternatively in PDF format, only if MS Word or plain text formats are not available. If you only have paper (hard copy) copies please provide a Digital Photo Copier Scanned version in PDF format. This will help ensure the information is accessible for use with a Screen Reader or
Magnifier. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader>

Yours faithfully,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Working Group involving LGA and Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) (Home Office 15/03/09)'.

This request is currently overdue a response from Home Office. By law, the response had to be prompt but no later than 16 April 2009

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

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Dear Sir or Madam,

RE: Working Group involving LGA and Directors of Children's Services
(ADCS) (Home Office 15/03/09)
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/wo...

Can you please acknowledge this information and a request for an independent review. I also write to advise that I have made a complaint to the ICO due to your abject failures with regards this request.

Yours sincerely,

Cassidy, J

Freedom Of Information Team ( IND ), Home Office

Dear J Cassidy

Thank you for your recent e-mail. We shall respond shortly.

Regards
UKBA
FOI Team

show quoted sections

Cassidy, J left an annotation ()

Cassidy, J is Vexatious?

Letter claiming information requests I submitted after 5thMay 2009 are vexatious, this will include ones sent in Feb/Mar and April as they are claiming that the specific 'unit' did not get ones sent via WDTY, particularly those listed at: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ua...

>>>>>>>

Directorate of Central Operations & Performance UASC Reform &
Management 5th Floor, St Anne House. Wellesley Road CROYDON

Tel (none provided)* Fax (none provided)* Email (none provided)*
Web www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk

27 May 2009

Dear J Cassidy,

Freedom of Information Request - 11774 - Unaccompanied Asylum
Seeking Children (UASC)

I am writing in relation to your FOI request dated 13 March 2009
about Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. This request was
received in this office on 5th May 2009. I have assessed your
request and have decided to decline it on the basis that it is
vexatious. Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides
that the Home Office is not obliged to comply with such requests.

It has been decided that this request is vexatious because of the
cumulative burden of answering the large number of requests about
USAC reform that you have submitted within a relatively short
period of time. These have impacted heavily upon the small unit
which deals with this area of work to the extent that they are
disrupting its work to an unreasonable extent. I am also writing to
inform you that all your requests received in this office after 5th
May 2009 and currently in our possession are also being refused
under section 14(1), as will any subsequent requests which fit into
the same pattern as those already received. As permitted by section
17(6) of the FOI Act, should such further requests be received, we
will not be writing to inform you of this decision.

The UK Border Agency is fully committed to fulfilling its
obligations under the FOI Act; however in the circumstances we have
reluctantly decided to rely on the above provisions. I appreciate
that you will probably have been unaware of the impact that your
requests have been having, and would like to stress that this
decision does not mean that we will never answer further requests
on this subject from you. However if we are to do so you will need
to submit requests in a more considered and manageable way, which
does not impose such a burden on the unit concerned.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an
independent internal review of our handling of your request by
submitting your complaint within two months to the below address
quoting reference FOIR 11774.

Head of Information Access Policy Team (Freedom of Information)
11th floor – short corridor Lunar House 40 Wellesley Road Croydon
CR9 2BY

During the independent review the department’s handling of your
information request will be reassessed by staff who were not
involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain
dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of
complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

I am sorry that I am unable to assist you further in this matter.

Yours sincerely

Jerry Harland UASC Reform Programme

>>>>>>>

Note: * My addition.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Harland Jerry <Jerry.Harland2 @ homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk> Date: 2009/5/27 Subject: Letter regarding FOI 11774. To: TEAM @ whatdotheyknow.com Dear Cassidy J, Please see attached letter regarding your request 11774. Many thanks Jerry Harland UASC Reform Programme 0208-604-1628