Communication about fire safety and Grenfell June 14th and 15th 2017

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council did not have the information requested.

Louise Oldfield

Dear Barking and Dagenham Borough Council,

I’m writing for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. that you may hold about fire safety in your Borough. Specifically I’d like:

1. Communication (emails, meeting minutes and agenda) , memos on June 14th and 15th 2017 regarding fire safety and or Grenfell Tower.

Where information has been discussed by Councillors or Council staff on private , non-council issued email accounts, please include these in the search, mindful that it is the information that is public, not the account.

Yours faithfully,

Louise Oldfield

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

Information request
Our reference: 4351935

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Dear Ms Oldfield
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
Thank you for your request for information that was received on 30 June
2017.
 
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 and we aim to send a response by 28 July 2017.
  
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 may restrict the release of some or
all of the information you have requested. We will carry out an assessment
and if any exemptions apply to some or all of the information then we
might not provide that information to you. We will inform you if this is
the case and advise you of your rights to request an internal review and
to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
 
We will also advise you if we cannot provide you with the information
requested for any other reason together with the reason(s) why and details
of how you may appeal (if appropriate).
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
FOI Team
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

1 Attachment

Information request
Our reference: 4351935

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Dear Ms Oldfield
 
Thank you for your request for information received on 30 June 2017.
 
Please find attached our response to your request.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
FOI Team
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Louise Oldfield

Dear Barking and Dagenham Borough Council,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Barking and Dagenham Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Communication about fire safety and Grenfell June 14th and 15th 2017'.

You have applied exemption 14(1) a vexatious request stating:

"We have decided that your request is vexatious because the impact of the request on this public authority cannot be justified and has the potential to cause a disproportionate and unjustified level of disruption and irritation to the Council. We have identified we hold over 6000 documents for the dates 14th and 15th June 2017 stating the words fire safety and/or Grenfell Tower and complying with the request would impose a significant burden on the authority in terms of expense and distraction."

I would like you to reconsider my request. I can assure you it is not my intention to be vexatious. Your reference to the request picking up 6000 documents would imply there is a potential for the request to go over the allotted 18 hours (Section 12). I would therefore suggest that you seek to query with me if my request can be limited or to be clarified in some way. I would imagine the information can be limited to the department responsible for housing and the Council executive. By way of reference, another Local Authority have been able to respond without applying exemptions.

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,

Louise Oldfield

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

Information request
Our reference: 4351935

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Dear Ms Oldfield
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000
 
Thank you for your request of 28th July 2017 in which you ask for an
internal review of our response to your Freedom of Information request. 
 
If you would like to consider refining your request to specify a
department or service area we will reconsider your request.
  
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
FOI Team
 
NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email.

Dear London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

I submitted a request for an internal review and I believe this should have been carried out. In my request for an internal review I stated:

"I would imagine the information can be limited to the department responsible for housing and the Council executive. By way of reference, another Local Authority have been able to respond without applying exemptions."

Yours sincerely,

Louise Oldfield

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

Dear Ms Oldfield
 
Thank you for your request for an internal review regarding your Freedom
of Information request. 
 
The purpose of an Internal Review is to assess how your Freedom of
Information request was handled in the first instance and to determine
whether the original decision given to you was correct.  This is an
independent review: I was not involved in the original decision.
 
 
I sincerely apologise for the long delay in getting back to you on this. 
I have only just received a response from the department responsible and
despite all efforts we are unable to provide this information as we cannot
retrieve emails by department.  It is only possible to retrieve emails by
individual names and it would be impossible to provide you with any
accurate data as we couldn't be certain that we capture all individuals
sending emails in relation to 'Fire' or 'Grenfell Tower'.  
 
It would be possible to identify those individuals within the housing
department but this would not provide an accurate response as there may be
other individuals outside of housing that may have sent emails in relation
to your request.
 
Therefore, we are unable to provide you with the information requested. 
Again, I sincerely apologise for the delay and if there is anything else I
can help you with please do not hesitate to contact me.
 

Information Commissioners Office

 

Should you remain dissatisfied with the final outcome of the internal
review then you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (the
“ICO”) for an independent review. The ICO is the Government’s Independent
Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the
Data Protection Act 1998 and The Environmental Information Regulations
2004. Please note the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the
council’s internal review procedure. All correspondence to the ICO must
quote the council’s reference number and your reasons for your appeal. The
ICO’s contact details are as follows:-

The Information Commissioners Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane, Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

 More information can be found at the ICO’s website at
http://www.ico.org.uk If you have any further enquiries about this matter,
please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing [Barking and Dagenham Borough Council request email].

 
Kind regards
 
The FOI Team

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Dear London Borough of Barking and Dagenham,

I submitted a request for an internal review and I believe this should
have been carried out. In my request for an internal review I stated:

"I would imagine the information can be limited to the department
responsible for housing and the Council executive. By way of reference,
another Local Authority have been able to respond without applying
exemptions."

Yours sincerely,

Louise Oldfield