Clarification of a clients right to record

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

On numerous occasions I have tried to exercise my right to record in my local JobCentrePlus despite your own policy document I have been told that this either illegal or refused, no offer has been made to provide a private room and all requests to make an appoint have been summarily dismissed. Insisting on this right leads to being threatened by calling the police. Desoite your staff clealry being aware of the policy in regards to this matter

Is it official DWP policy to refuse to give out the local office number is a client expressly asks for it due to problems with the 0845 number?

I quote from a 'letter' received on the 2nd September on
Jobcentreplus headed paper unsigned simply printed manager.
containing the following paragraph

'It has been a long term policy of this department that recording or filming of any kind is not permitted in our public areas without the full consent of all staff and customers. The above restriction also relates to video cameras or any other recording media'

Please where and how the mechanism to obtain my consent was obtained?

Noting the use of the word ANY - DWP follows its own policy and the CCTV cameras present for 'staff safety' are in fact None Functional?

Bearing in mind clients as previously established by foi requests have the right to record and It is the DWP's responsibility as part of their obligations to comply with the law which is they and not the claimant must protect all claimants personal and sensitive data while processing.

For a member of the general pubic its entirely different as first its not illegal to have a video or audio diary. Next any recording is about you and the subject, if it included background no one would be allowed to record on places like beaches or parties where people often spill personal and sensitive data.

Please state under what Laws/ Statutes etc the DWP believes that 'policy' restricts the clients rights both to the services you provide and the right to record.

What is the Official policy is if staff refuse to be record and refuse to make an appointment with some one who is willing to recorded.

What is the official DWP policy upon a client stating they wish to make a complaint in person as is their right to a manager?

Does this person have the right to request an appointment with said manager if one is not immediately available, yes or no?

It is frequently claimed there are no managers present is this common

a) DWP staffing practice ? yes / No ?
b) Offical policy ? yes / no

If the client wishes to make a complaint to a manager from another office citing 'Conflict of interest' then what is DWP policy then?

As it is a maxim of Law you can either be a Landlord or a Tenant in a case but not both at the same time, Do DWP staff retain their authority as proxies of the Secretary of State if they refuse to be recorded as part of the performance of their role?

Please supply supporting evidence to your answer.

Yours faithfully,

G. J. Rose.

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear DWP freedom-of-information-requests,

the foi request made via the whatdotheyknow website url

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/1...

is Now overdue when may I expect your response?

Yours sincerely,

G. J. Rose.

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Clarification of a clients right to record'.

The response to your request is overdue. by law, the authority should normally have responded promptly and by 16 October 2013

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

Yours faithfully,

G. J. Rose.

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

 
Dear Mr Rose
 
Please find attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information
request.
 
 
 
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
 
 
 

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Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

 
Dear Mr Rose
 
Please find attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information
request.
 
 
 
 
Yours sincerely
 
DWP Central Freedom of Information Team
 
 
 

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Dear Operations FOI Requests,

This reply is an evasion , you have failed to address the following points

"Do DWP staff retain their authority as proxies of the Secretary of State if they refuse to
be recorded as part of the performance of their role?
DWP Civil Servants are permitted to decline to be recorded in the performance of their duties.
This has no impact on their decision making authority as it is not a requirement of their
employment"

The employment terms of the DWP staff have no bearing on this issue that is a matter between the secretary of state and the employee.

However the Client does have a legal right to record and the Secretary of State is also subject to the law. Please answer the question does an employee who refuses to carry out their duties when confronted with the insistence of a right still exercise the Secretary of States authority ?

Is it official DWP policy to refuse to give out the local office number is a client expressly
asks for it due to problems with the 0845 number?

I will provide further clarification In this matter the supplied 0845 number was either not being answered or was not functioning correctly as it was not being answered for both myself and other clients who had been attempting to call for a period of several days. This was explained to the office in question. By refusing to provide a working number you are denying the client a right to the service they have a legal right to access.

Please state what action the local office should have used to rectify this matter.

"Noting the use of the word ANY - DWP follows its own policy and the CCTV cameras present for 'staff safety' are in fact None Functional? "

"The Freedom of Information Act provides the requestor with an access right to recorded
information. It does not extend to requests for views, comments or questions about a particular
matter. Your request can be in the form of a question, but the public authority does not have to
answer if this would mean giving an opinion or judgement that is not already recorded."

This is not an opinion nor is it a Judgement. The answers are a simple statement of fact or existing policy . In this regards the DWP has all ready made a judgement and implemented it.

It is a simple fact did the DWP obtain my consent Yes /no ?

Are the cameras functional yes /no?

Therefore If the camera are functional then DWP are following their own stated policy.

"What is the Official policy is if staff refuse to be record and refuse to make an appointment with some one who is willing to recorded.

DWP staff are expected to operate within the bounds of the Civil Service code and the department’s Standards of Behaviour. There is no specific policy for the hypothetical situation you describe. "

As clear stated this Situation is NOT hypothetical it happened more than once to me personally and evidence exists that shows this.

please state the official procedure that should have been followed and what action should have been taken when this action failed bearing in mind you previous answer the office concerned would have refused to give out a number for the Regional manages office.

Please bear in mind when replying clients have the right by published Government standards to make a complaint either in writing , by telephone or in person despite your policy of a complaint must be in writing.

"Please state under what Laws/ Statutes etc the DWP believes that 'policy' restricts the
clients rights both to the services you provide and the right to record

The Freedom of Information Act provides the requestor with an access right to recorded
information. It does not extend to the provision of legal opinion. "

This is a deliberate evasion and a violation of the Carlton principles mentioned previously. The intent of the question was clearly not to ask for legal opinion however I will in the interests of clarity rephrase the question

Please state under what Laws, Statutes, Instrument of Parliment , Ministers discretion etc giving the name of the legislation and the paragraph and line number that authorises the DWP to use policy which is not law to restricts the clients rights both to the services you provide and the right to record

Yours sincerely,

G. J. Rose.

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

2 Attachments

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information review
request.
 
DWP Freedom of Information Team.
 
 
 
 

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Dear Operations FOI Requests,

Once again your response is deemed unsatisfactory. You have deliberately evaded responding to the points raised and responded to the points with boiler plate responses that do not address the issues raised.

On the advice of my legal representative this matter will be forwarded to ICE to allow for legal redress.

.
As per DWP policy please supply enough information to Identify the person to a team and location level as I wish to exercise my right to file a complaint of Maladministration against this person as I believe they have deliberately intended to mislead by their actions and response.

Yours sincerely,

G. J. Rose.

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

 
Dear GJ Rose,
 
Please find attached the reply to your recent Freedom of Information
review request reference number IR907:
 
 
 
 
Thank you
 
DWP Freedom of Information Team
 
 
 
 

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