Complaints about emails ignored/not received by Greenwich Borough Council

The request was partially successful.

Guillaume Lombard

Dear Greenwich Borough Council,

Having received no response to an email sent to parkings services ( parking at royalgreenwich.gov.uk )on 11 Nov 2018, 19:59 GMT Daylight Time followed up by reminder emails on 17 Nov 2018 at 21:24,8 Dec 2018 at 23:56, 16 Dec 2018 at 19:38 and finally on 19 Dec 2018 at 04:53. Can the council say how many complaints they have had about emails from residents not being replied to, whether they believe that emails were not received by the council, or were received but ignored, or for some other reason?

Yours faithfully,

G. Lombard

foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam

Freedom of Information request: FOI-24456

Thank you for your request dated 08 February 2019

Your request will be answered by 08 March 2019

If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Central Services
Royal Borough of Greenwich

020 8921 5044
 Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

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foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam

Freedom of Information request:  FOI-24456

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request, dated 08/02/2019.

Your request is currently being dealt with under the terms of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 and will be progressed as soon as we have received
the clarification requested below;

 

Please clarify the timeframe you require for you Freedom of Information
request (i.e. all complaints in the past 12 months etc.)?

 

Please quote the reference number in your reply.

If we have not received clarification within 2 months of this email, we
will close the request.

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Central Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

 

' 020 8921 5044

*   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

8 www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 

 

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Guillaume Lombard

Dear Jackie,

Replying to your request, reference FOI-24456.
Please send me the number of email complaints for the past 24 months categorised by reasons (email not received, emails request ignored or other), also the number of total email request received and the
total number of emails successfully answered.

Yours sincerely,

G Lombard

foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Freedom of Information request: FOI-24456

 

Thank you for your clarification dated 09/02/2019.

 

Your request has been reopened and will now be answered by 11/03/2019.

 

If you have any queries about this correspondence, please contact us
quoting the reference number above.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Central Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

 

' 020 8921 5044

*   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

8 www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 

 

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foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Mr Lombard

Freedom of Information request: FOI-24456

Thank you for your request dated 09 February 2019

Our response is as follows:

Having received no response to an email sent to parkings services ( parking at royalgreenwich.gov.uk )on 11 Nov 2018, 19:59 GMT Daylight Time followed up by reminder emails on 17 Nov 2018 at 21:24,8 Dec 2018 at 23:56, 16 Dec 2018 at 19:38 and finally on 19 Dec 2018 at 04:53. Can the council say how many complaints they have had about emails from residents not being replied to, whether they believe that emails were not received by the council, or were received but ignored, or for some other reason?

The Council will not comply with the request headed Ignored Email Complaints in accordance with section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (“the Act”) which states:-

Section 1(1) does not oblige a local authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (“the Fees Regulations) sets the appropriate limit at £450 for the public authority in question. Under these Regulations, a public authority can charge a maximum of £25 per hour for work undertaken to comply with a request. This equates to 18 hours work.

A public authority is only required to provide a reasonable estimate or breakdown of costs and in putting together its estimate it can take the following processes into consideration:-

(a) Determining whether it holds the information
(b) Locating the information, or a document which may contain the information;
(c) Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the information, and
(d) Extracting the information from a document containing it.

We have estimated the length of time it will take to do the following tasks in accordance with section 12.

Between 11 November 2018 (the date of your original complaint) and 9 February 2019 (the date of your request), the Council received approximately 2,864 complaints.

To retrieve and extract the relevant information would require each record to be reviewed by an officer to determine if it related in full or in part to the failure to respond to a complaint. This would take approximately three minutes per complaint, equivalent to 143 hours to review all 2,864 complaints. For the purposes of the Fees Regulations, this would equate to 143 x £25 = £3,575, exceeding the limit set in the Fees Regulations.

Under Section 16 of the Act, the Council has a duty to assist requesters. In this instance, reducing the scope of your request, such as the Council services the request relates to, or the time period requested, so as to reduce the number of complaints included in the request, may be beneficial.

If you have any queries about this correspondence, please contact me, quoting the reference number above.

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, you can ask for an Internal Review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original request. If you wish to do this, please contact us, setting out why you are dissatisfied.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the Internal Review procedure provided by the Council. You can contact the ICO by emailing [email address], or by post at Customer Contact, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Corporate Services
Directorate of Central Services
Royal Borough of Greenwich

 020 8921 5044
 Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW
 www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 Please consider the environment before printing this email

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Guillaume Lombard

Dear foi,
Thanks for your response, with regards to the high costs of processing this requests, I would like to re-scope my requests in a manner that should be quick and a lot cheaper.
Would you be able to tell how me many of those emails since November 2018 were actually replied to by an actual person. You should be able to obtain this information by looking at the number of sent emails or replied emails in your current mail box. Most modern email clients have this built in and that request should take less than 5mn to processes.

Yours sincerely,

Guillaume Lombard

foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Freedom of Information request:  FOI-25659

 

Thank you for your request dated 12 March 2019

 

Your request will be answered by 09 April 2019

 

If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the
reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Central Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

 

020 8921 5044

   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 

 

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foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Mr Lombard

 

Freedom of Information request:  FOI-25659

 

Thank you for your request dated 12 March 2019

 

Our response is as follows:

 

Thanks for your response, with regards to the high costs of processing
this requests, I would like to re-scope my requests in a manner that
should be quick and a lot cheaper.

 

Would you be able to tell how me many of those emails since November 2018
were actually replied to by an actual person. You should be able to obtain
this information by looking at the number of sent emails or replied emails
in your current mail box. Most modern email clients have this built in and
that request should take less than 5mn to processes.

 

Further to your previous request, dated 9 February 2019, we have reviewed
the initial response to your request, and have determined that an error
was made in terms of the number of complaints made between 8 November 2018
and 9 February 2019. Instead of the 2,864 figure provided, 676 complaints
were received in this period. I apologise for this error, which was due to
the report being run on the period 8 November 2017 to 9 February 2019. I
have amended the exemption applied to the case, which is restated below.

 

Of the 676 complaints received between 8 November 2018 and 9 February
2019, a total of 22 complaints are currently still open at one of the
stages of the complaints process, and are awaiting a response from the
directorate to the complaint.

 

Of these open cases, 10 cases are still open at the initial stage of the
complaints process, and so have not received a response. The table below
breaks this number down by service area/complaint type:

 

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Complaint Type/Directorate |Number |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Council Tax |1 |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Children’s Services (non-statutory) |2 |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Children’s Services (statutory) |1 |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Health and Adults (statutory) |3 |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Housing and Safer Communities |3 |
|------------------------------------------------+-----------------------|
|Total |10 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

These figures are based on complaints recorded on the Council’s case
management system for complaints.

 

As referred to above, the Council will not comply with the request headed
Ignored Email Complaints (FOI-24456) in accordance with section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act (“the Act”) which states:-

 

Section 1(1) does not oblige a local authority to comply with a request
for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with
the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

 

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 (“the Fees Regulations) sets the appropriate limit
at £450 for the public authority in question. Under these Regulations, a
public authority can charge a maximum of £25 per hour for work undertaken
to comply with a request. This equates to 18 hours work.

 

A public authority is only required to provide a reasonable estimate or
breakdown of costs and in putting together its estimate it can take the
following processes into consideration:-

 

(a)   Determining whether it holds the information

(b)  Locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information;

(c)   Retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and

(d)  Extracting the information from a document containing it.

 

 

We have estimated the length of time it will take to do the following
tasks in accordance with section 12.

 

Between 11 November 2018 (the date of your original complaint) and 9
February 2019 (the date of your request), the Council received
approximately 676 complaints.

 

To retrieve and extract the relevant information would require each record
to be reviewed by an officer to determine if it related in full or in part
to the failure to respond to a complaint. This would take approximately
three minutes per complaint, equivalent to 33 hours 48 minutes to review
all 676 complaints. For the purposes of the Fees Regulations, this would
equate to 33.8 x £25 = £845, exceeding the limit set in the Fees
Regulations.

 

Under Section 16 of the Act, the Council has a duty to assist requesters.
In this instance, reducing the scope of your request, such as the Council
services the request relates to, or the time period requested, so as to
reduce the number of complaints included in the request, may be
beneficial.

 

If you have any queries about this correspondence, please contact me,
quoting the reference number above.

 

If you are not satisfied with our response to your request, you can ask
for an Internal Review.  Internal review requests must be submitted within
two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original
request.  If you wish to do this, please contact us in writing, setting
out why you are dissatisfied.

 

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the Internal Review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. 
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
Internal Review procedure provided by the Council. You can contact the ICO
by emailing [1][email address], or by post at Customer Contact,
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
SK9 5AF.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Communities & Environment

Royal Borough of Greenwich

 

' 020 8921 5044

*   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

8 www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 

ü Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

From: foi
Sent: 12 March 2019 12:59
To: 'Guillaume Lombard' <[FOI #551021 email]>
Cc: foi <[Greenwich Borough Council request email]>
Subject: FOI-25659: FOI-24456: Freedom of Information request - Complaints
about emails ignored/not received by Greenwich Borough Council

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Freedom of Information request:  FOI-25659

 

Thank you for your request dated 12 March 2019

 

Your request will be answered by 09 April 2019

 

If you have any queries about this request, please contact me, quoting the
reference number above.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jackie Jago

Head of Corporate Services

Corporate Services

Directorate of Central Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

 

020 8921 5044

   Room 20 Basement The Town Hall, Wellington Street, London SE18 6PW

www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 

 

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Guillaume Lombard

Dear foi,

Thank you for your response, would you be able to tell me under which category parking services falls, as I am assuming that my email must be part of the remaining 10 that have yet to be answered.

Yours sincerely,

Guillaume Lombard

foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Mr Lombard

Thank you for your email

For reference Parking services forms part of the Directorate of Regeneration, Enterprise & Skills (DRES).

The complaint you refer to is not one of those listed in our response. We are investigating with the Directorate of Regeneration, Enterprise & Skills to ascertain what has happened to your correspondence, as it does not appear that your complaint has been logged on the Council’s casework management system

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Communities & Environment
Royal Borough of Greenwich

 020 8921 5044
0   Room 20, Basement, Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, London SE18 6PW
Ee www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 Please consider the environment before printing this email

show quoted sections

Guillaume Lombard

Dear foi,

Thank you for your response, in order to help you identifying my request, I went back to email to find a reference number, however I realised there isn't one as every time I communicated I only got an automated reply - see after closure of this email
However you might be able to use the subject of the email and time as a filter to narrow it done.
I look forward to hearing from your team/services

Yours sincerely,

Guillaume Lombard

Automatic reply: Enquiry - parking on Sunday
Inbox
x

Parking <[email address]>
Sun, 11 Nov 2018, 11:59
to me

Thank you for emailing [email address]. Due to the high number of enquiries received to this mailbox, we may not be able to respond immediately but your email has been safely received and will be answered as soon as possible.

If your enquiry is urgent, or you require one of the following services please call the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s Contact Centre on 020 8921 4339 or out of hours 020 8854 8888:

· Parking enforcement requests*

· Dispensation to park on a yellow line

If you require a Parking Bay suspension please click on the following link www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/suspendaparkin...

Please note that bay suspensions need ten days’ notice and dispensations to park on a yellow line needs seven days’ notice.

*Parking enforcement requests are forwarded to the Enforcement team to arrange a visit as soon as resources allow. We regret, due to the volume of requests, that we are not able to answer or provide feedback for Parking Enforcement requests. If you require feedback, please telephone our Contact Centre to report illegal parking where you will be given a unique reference number to enable you to call back for feedback.

Information on how to complain about any of our services can be found on our website here: http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/Complai...

Full details of our services can be found on our website here: http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/Parking

Parking Services

Royal Borough of Greenwich

Guillaume Lombard

Dear foi,
Can you give me an update on the investigation regarding the correspondence. I have yet to hear back from the council.
Yours sincerely,

Guillaume Lombard

foi, Greenwich Borough Council

Dear Mr Lombard,

Thank you for your email

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in our investigation, which we have now conducted. The Council’s response has been issued as a reply to your original enquiry to Parking services dated November 11th 2018, therefore, for the purposes of Data Protection, our response has been addressed to the email account that you used to make your initial enquiry. Please contact us if you have any trouble accessing this correspondence

Yours sincerely,

Jackie Jago
Head of Corporate Services
Communities & Environment
Royal Borough of Greenwich

 020 8921 5044
0   Room 20, Basement, Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, London SE18 6PW
Ee www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk

 Please consider the environment before printing this email

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