Councils failure to respond to FOI request within 20 working days

Tower Hamlets Borough Council did not have the information requested.

Dear Tower Hamlets Borough Council,

Please provide in list format with links to copies of FOI requests including the actual request itself and all responses, that the council in its duty under section 10 Time for compliance with request - subsection (1)http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000... has actually failed to provide a response within 20 working days as outlined in the above section 10. Failure of which is classed as a breach of the act, of which further guidance by the "Information Commissioners Office - ICO" can be found in the following document entitled - FOI Act Awareness Guidance 11: Time for Compliance http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

The above Awareness Guidance 11 document is also posted here on Google Docs as the ICO hosted version seems to keep crashing; http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...

Yours faithfully,

Muhammed Iqbal

Shazna Bibi, Tower Hamlets Borough Council

Dear Sir/Madam

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your email.

Your request is being considered and if the information is held you will
receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of 20
working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to
the information not being exempt.

If the time taken to meet your request is likely to exceed 18 hours, we
will contact you and ask you amend your request to bring it below this
time limit. We will assist you with suggestions of how this might be
achieved.

I may also contact you if the request needs to be clarified; this is to
ensure that we provide you with the information you require.

Please note that some information you have requested may not be provided
to you; this will only be information that can be withheld by law. In
most cases the reasons will be explained to you along with your copy of
any information that can be released to you.

Yours faithfully,

Shazna Bibi

Information Governance Administrative Assistant

Legal Services

6th Floor

Mulberry Place

London E14 2BG

020 7364 4932

[1][email address]

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/
3. mailto:[Tower Hamlets Borough Council request email]

Tim Rodgers, Tower Hamlets Borough Council

Dear Mr Iqbal,

Further to your request dated 2nd February 2011, I can advise that the
Council does not hold the information in the format requested.

You asked for a list of FOI requests that were not complied with, within
the appropriate limit. You asked that the list should come with links to
copies of FOI requests including the actual request itself and all
responses.

The Council does not hold a list of FOI requests where the appropriate
limit was exceeded, and the Council is under no obligation to produce new
work to satisfy a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Of
course, your requirement for links to the requests is already satisfied
through publication to WhatDoTheyKnow and our disclosure log
([1]http://www.towerhamletsfoi.org.uk/tracke...),
so you should be able to navigate to requests of interest that are
online. However, requests come in a variety of different formats - not
all are online, some stand part of corporate complaints correspondence -
the substantive part of which cannot be placed into the public domain
etc... Therefore the requests available online are not the totality of
the requests the Council has received or answered and therefore responses
to other requests in different formats will also have, regrettably,
exceeded the appropriate limit under the Act.

Tim Rodgers
Information Governance Manager
Legal Services
Chief Executives Department
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Phone: 0207 364 4354
[mobile number]
Fax: 0207 364 4804
E-mail: [2][email address]
Website: http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk
6th Floor, Town Hall, 5 Mulberry Place,
London E14 2BG

You have the right to complain to the Council about this decision. If you
wish to do this please write to:

Corporate Complaints Unit

Tower Hamlets Town Hall

Mulberry Place

5 Clove Crescent

London E14 2BG

If you are subsequently not satisfied with the Council's response to your
complaint you have a right of appeal to the independent Information
Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 700

[3]www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

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Please consider your environmental responsibility: Before printing this
e-mail or any other document , ask yourself whether you need a hard
copy.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.towerhamletsfoi.org.uk/tracke...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
4. http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/
5. http://www.census.gov.uk/
6. mailto:[Tower Hamlets Borough Council request email]