Cost of translation services
Dear Liverpool City Council,
Please provide the budget / spend on translation services for the Council in financial year 2014/15.
If the whole information is difficult to obtain, I would accept a reasonable estimate based on readily available information.
Yours faithfully,
Martin Jones
Please find attached response
Regards,
Kevin Symm I Senior Information Officer
Liverpool City Council I Cunard Building I Liverpool I L3 1DS
T: 0151 233 0418 I E: [1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Symm,
Thank you for your prompt and courteous reply.
I have a confession to make - Martin Jones is a pseudonym.
I'm so grateful that you only question the identities of people asking difficult questions - specifically, questions related to the Council's handling of LDL.
Would it be safe to assume that we're fine to ask questions as long as the answers aren't embarrassing? I'll try to bear that in mind.
Yours sincerely,
(Not) Martin Jones
I am currently out of the office and have no access to my emails.
If your email is urgent, or you are submitting a request for information
under either the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Data Protection Act 1998
or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 please forward it to:
[email address]
I would advise that we will not consider it received until it is forwarded
to this address.
For any general information or advice ring 0151 233 0418 and one of my
colleagues will be happy to assist.
Katie M. left an annotation ()
Hi Francis,
To save some time, I thought I'd provide the links.
The first two were these from Paul Wiggins (a new WDTK user):
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
and
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/v...
Then the next day they used this same identity thing to reject the latest request from Jenny Griffin (after answering 55 previous requests she had made over some 4 years, and engaging in dialogue with her on this one).
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...
Dear Sir/Madam
At all times the City Council acts in accordance with the relevant legislation and, in regards to your email, specifically within the parameters of Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 when asking requestors to prove their identity.
Section 8 allows Local Authorities to ask for documentary evidence when we have reason to believe the requestor is using a name other than their own and the City Council will continue to do so in similar future instances such as this wherever we feel appropriate
Additionally, any further requests you may submit to the City Council under this name will not be handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in accordance with Section 8. Additionally, any further correspondence you may submit to the City Council will not be responded to
I hope this is of assistance
Regards,
Kevin Symm I Senior Information Officer
Liverpool City Council I Cunard Building I Liverpool I L3 1DS
T: 0151 233 0418 I E: [email address]
Postal address:
Liverpool City Council I Municipal Buildings I Dale Street I Liverpool I L2 2DH
Francis Irving left an annotation ()
You hardly needed this test, Martin! There are plenty of requests from all sorts of names on this site where Liverpool didn't ask for proof of identity.
Kevin is in the wrong for ever having asked for proof of identity. While the law lets him, there is never a good reason to do so, and it is not good practice (according to the ICO) to do so.
"Acts in accordance with the legislation" is misleading wording. It implies the law says that he must ask for identity when suspicious the person is fake, when it says no such thing.
Saying that something is allowable by law is *not* a justification for doing it! He still hasn't really explained why he sometimes asks and other times doesn't.
Dear Mr Symm,
Sorry to be tedious about this, but it's worthwhile being accurate, I feel :
1. Erm, no, Liverpool City Council doesn't always work within the law when it comes to FOI requests - you're generally great with non-contentious requests, but the vast majority of requests about LDL have been answered outside the legally defined timeframe. Worse, many of the responses appear to have been deliberately obfuscatory
2. Your comment about requesting identification "in future" is a tad disingenuous. You didn't apply your new approach to this request, as it didn't ask anything embarrassing. I fear that I may have triggered a situation in which the Council feels it has to apply this silly approach more widely in future. I hope that isn't the case.
3. I apologise for wasting your time with this particular request. I do feel that it was worthwhile making this test, just to establish beyond doubt that the Council only censors the embarrassing stuff.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Jones
I am currently out of the office and have no access to my emails.
If your email is urgent, or you are submitting a request for information
under either the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Data Protection Act 1998
or Environmental Information Regulations 2004 please forward it to:
[email address]
I would advise that we will not consider it received until it is forwarded
to this address.
For any general information or advice ring 0151 233 0418 and one of my
colleagues will be happy to assist.
Audrey O'Keefe left an annotation ()
''They've'' also asked me to prove my identity asking to view my birth certificates/passport !!
My recent FOI re Anderson v Chesterfield was met with obstruction from the very beginning. Mayor Anderson wanted to hide the fact he used £90k of public money to pay his private legal fees.
''Oh the dark arts of Liverpool Labour Council''.......
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Francis Irving left an annotation ()
Martin - can you post a link to the request where identity was questioned?
Thanks!