Annual FOI Conference 2013

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

. 

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

Visible links
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3. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

. 

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
[2]http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...

Twitter

Find us on Twitter at [3]http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

Visible links
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3. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

4 December 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0561436

Dear J A Giggins

Request for Information
 
Thank you for your information request of 11 November 2014. 
 
We have dealt with your request in accordance with your ‘right to know’
under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which
entitles you to be provided with a copy of any information ‘held’ by a
public authority, unless an appropriate exemption applies.
 
Request
 
In your e-mail you asked for:
 
“(A) No and names of ICO delegates.
(B) Full list of delegates if held, together with their Public Authority.
(C) Cost of each ICO delegate/attendee's place at the conference and total
cost to the ICO.
(D) Associated costs for each ICO delegate/attendee - travel, overnight
accommodation, subsistence etc.
(E) Charges made by the ICO to PDP, split by revenue stream eg speakers,
provision of information etc.
 
In addition, I would be grateful if you could supply any transcript,
recording of the keynote speech held by the ICO.”
 
This was with reference to the FOI conference organised by PDP in 2013.
 
Response to your request

 1. Number and names of ICO delegates. 

Lisa Adshead (Group Manager, Policy Delivery)
Julie Parr (Solicitor, Policy Delivery)
Lucie Dennehy (Solicitor, Policy Delivery)
 
 

 2. Full list of delegates, if held, together with their Public Authority.

 
The conference is organised by PDP which is a separate organisation to the
ICO, Therefore, this is information which is not held by the ICO.
 
 

 3. Cost of each ICO delegate/attendee's place at the conference and total
cost to the ICO.

 
Lisa Adshead attended at a total cost of £417. Julie Parr and Lucie
Dennehy attended free of charge. 
 
 

 4. Associated costs for each ICO delegate/attendee - travel, overnight
accommodation, subsistence etc.

 
Only Lisa Adshead claimed expenses for travel, overnight accommodation and
subsistence. Please find attached a copy of her expenses claim.
 
Please note that the signatures of Lisa and her manager and Lisa’s payroll
number have been redacted.  This personal information is exempt from
disclosure to you under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act
2000 as to provide it to you would contravene the Data Protection Act
1998.
 
 

 5. Charges made by the ICO to PDP, split by revenue stream eg speakers,
provision of information etc.

 
No charges were made to PDP.
 
 

 6. Any transcript, recording of the keynote speech held by the ICO.

 
The only information we hold which falls within the scope of your request
is the attached Powerpoint slides. Graham Smith does not normally prepare
notes but will speak off the bullet points on the slides. We would not
normally take recordings or transcripts of presentations and we haven’t
done so on this occasion.
 
Review Procedure
 
I hope this provides you with the information you require.  However, if
you are dissatisfied with this response and wish to request a review of
our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled
you should write to the Information Access Team at the address below or
e-mail [1][ICO request email].
 
Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response.  Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.
 
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation.  To make such an application, please write
to our Customer Contact Team at the address given or visit our website if
you wish to make a complaint under either the Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations.
 
A copy of our review procedure can be accessed from our website [2]here.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Ashley Duffy      Lead Information Access Officer
 
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
T. 01625 545625  F. 01625 524510  [3]www.ico.org.uk
 

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/about_us/~/media/d...
3. http://www.ico.org.uk/

Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

. 

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Our newsletter

Details of how to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter can be found at
[2]http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...

Twitter

Find us on Twitter at [3]http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

Visible links
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2. http://www.ico.org.uk/tools_and_resource...
3. http://www.twitter.com/ICOnews

9 December 2014

Case Reference Number RCC0564383

Dear J A Giggins

Thank you for your correspondence dated 5 December 2014.
 
This correspondence will now be treated as a request for an internal
review of the response we provided to your recent request for information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
 
We will aim to respond by 8 January 2015 which is 20 working days from the
day after we received your recent correspondence.  This is in accordance
with our internal review procedures which were provided with our response.
 
Yours sincerely

Ashley Duffy
Lead Information Access Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 01625 545625  F. 01625 524510  [1]ico.org.uk  [2]twitter.com/iconews
Please consider the environment before printing this email

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

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2. https://twitter.com/iconews

8 January 2015

Case Reference Number RCC0564383

Dear J A Giggins

I write further to your correspondence of 05 December 2014, requesting a
review of the decision set out in the response sent to you on 04 December
2014. This review will consider the handling of your freedom of
information request of 11 November 2014 (ref IRQ0561436).

I am principal adviser in Performance Improvement and can confirm that I
have had no prior involvement in the handling of your request.

Your request for review and points raised is set out below:-
“I am writing to request an internal review of Information Commissioner?s
Office's handling of my FOI request 'Annual FOI Conference 2013'.

Many thanks for the information provided, but please can you conduct a
review of the response to the following numbered parts of my request:

2. Full list of delegates, if held, together with their Public Authority.

Please could you review the response to this question. I appreciate that
the ICO did not organise the conference, but Graham Smith delivered a
speech at it, and a further three ICO employees attended it. It is
possible that one, or indeed all of them have retained their conference
papers/notes which often contain a delegates list. If so, I would
appreciate a redacted copy of the list - I appreciate that names might be
exempt under the DPA, but job titles and employers would be sufficient.

3. Cost of each ICO delegate/attendee's place at the conference and total
cost to the ICO.

Please could you provide any information that would explain why two
officers attended the conference free of charge. Have any registration
details/confirmations etc been retained?

4. Associated costs for each ICO delegate/attendee - travel, overnight
accommodation, subsistence etc.

Please could you provide the name of Lisa Adshead's manager whose
signature you have redacted. Also is there any information held to explain
why the other two officers didn't claim expenses? Eg are they London
based?

6. Any transcript, recording of the keynote speech held by the ICO.
You responded:

The only information we hold which falls within the scope of your request
is the attached Powerpoint slides. Graham Smith does not normally prepare
notes but will speak off the bullet points on the slides. We would not
normally take recordings or transcripts of presentations and we haven?t
done so on this occasion.

However you do sometimes video presentations, and that is what prompted me
to ask for any recording held. I would be grateful if you would confirm
that you have not misunderstood the request, and that no video of the
presentation is held.”

For ease of reference I will use the same numbering system in my response.
2. I have reviewed the initial response and consulted colleagues who
attended the conference. As a consequence of this I have located an “Event
Participant List”, a copy of which is enclosed. The list only comprises
the organisation name and the individuals’ names. With the exception of
ICO staff, I have redacted the names of the attendees as, as you
acknowledge above, these are exempt under section 40(2) of FOIA as their
disclosure would be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. I can also
confirm that although Joanne Crowley, a member of ICO staff, is on the
list she did not attend the conference.

3. There is no recorded information which explains why two ICO officers
attended free of charge, however, I have consulted with the relevant
colleagues and can advise that as Graham Smith, had agreed to give the
Keynote speech the conference organiser granted the ICO two free places. I
can also confirm from my own experience that this is not an unusual
occurrence.

4. In your review request you ask for the name of Lisa Adshead’s manager
whose signature was redacted from the original response, whilst this is
not technically within the scope of your original request, by way of being
helpful, I am happy to confirm that it is Steve Wood.

You enquired why the other two officers did not have details of expenses
provided in the original response. I investigated this issue further both
with the individuals concerned and with our Finance Department. Those
further investigations identified copies of expenses claim forms for Julia
Parr and Lucie Dennehy (copies of these are enclosed although the
signatures have been redacted as they do not fall within the scope of your
request).
I am also now able to confirm that the return rail costs for the ICO staff
in relation to the conference were as follows:-

Julia Parr - £230.00
Lucie Dennehy - £230.00
Lisa Adshead - £163.50

With regard to Graham Smith, I am providing details of rail costs and 2
nights hotel accommodation for the 14^th and 15^th May 2013, however, I
must add some context to these as these costs do not relate solely to the
PDP Conference. Mr Smith travelled to London on 14 May for a meeting in
London; he stayed overnight and attended the PDP Conference on 15 May;
again he stayed overnight and travelled next morning, 16 May, to
Loughborough for an Ombudsman Conference.

Mr Smith’s rail costs were £29.25. His hotel accommodation costs were
£270.00 (copy invoice enclosed with some of Mr Smith’s personal data
redacted as it does not fall within the scope of your request, though even
if it did it would be exempt under section 40(2) of FOIA as disclosure
would be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998).

6. I can confirm following further investigation and consultation that
your request regarding the presentation was not misunderstood and that no
recording, other than the slides already provided, or video recording is
held.
The purpose of an internal review is to give a public authority the
opportunity to reconsider its handling of an FOI request and to correct
any errors or omissions. In this instance it is clear that some
information which was held at the time of your request was not identified
and made available to you. My further investigations and internal
consultations have enabled me to correct that situation and with the
exception of some personal information which has been redacted/withheld by
virtue of section 40(2) of FOIA, all of the information held that falls
within the scope of your request has now been provided. I apologise for
those omissions from the original response and am pleased to have been
able to correct that on internal review.
I hope that you find this helpful. However if you are dissatisfied with
the outcome of this review you may make a section 50 complaint to the ICO.

How to complain

Information on how to complain is available on the ICO website at:

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

By post: If your supporting evidence is in hard copy, you can fill in the
Word version of our complaint form, print it out and post it to us with
your supporting evidence. A printable Freedom of Information Act
complaints form is available from the ICO website. Please send to:

First Contact Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

By email: If all your supporting evidence is available electronically, you
can fill in our online complaint form. Important: information included in
the form, and any supporting evidence will be sent to us by email.

Yours sincerely
 
Gerrard Tracey
Principal Adviser
 

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

References

Visible links
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