Current FOI case list

The request was successful.

Dear Sir or Madam,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST

Both the Scottish Information Commissioner [a] and the Information Tribunal [b] publish lists of the FOI/EIR complaint/appeal cases they are currently reviewing.

[a] <<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appli...>>

[b] <<http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/cu...>>

As I've been unable to find an equivalent list on your website, please could provide me with a list of the current FOI/EIR cases being investigated by the Information Commissioner. Depending on the format/structure you may hold the data, I would prefer to see the name of the Public Authority, the date the case was received, the type of request (FOI/DPA), and a synopsis (or title) of the case.

Any assistance you can provide in letting me know how you hold or structure this data would be appreciated in order to avoid the need to create new information to satisfy this request.

Yours faithfully,

Alex Skene

Charlotte Powell,

Our Reference: FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

Thank you for your correspondence dated 10 July 2008 asking for a list of
all current FOI/EIR case.

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We will respond by 7 August 2008 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Information Commissioners Office

01625 545760

____________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
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Charlotte Powell,

2 Attachments

FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

I write further to your correspondence dated 10 July 2008 which as you are
aware we have treated as a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

This is the FOI caseload as at June 08. On some references N/A is listed
as the Public Authority, this is because these cases which were received
in June 08 and are still waiting for the parties to be added to the case.
Our casework management system which holds all the complaints we receive
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information
Regulations does not record a synopsis of the nature of the complaint but
under which section of the Act the complaint is being made and this is
included in the attached spreadsheet. We therefore do not hold that
information.

I hope this information is helpful, However, If you are dissatisfied with
the response you have received and wish to request a review of our
decision or make a complaint about how your request has been handled you
should write to the Internal Compliance Team at the address below or
e-mail [1][email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation. To make such an application, please write
to the Senior Complaints Resolution Manager, Complaints Resolution Team at
the address below or e-mail [2][email address].

A copy of our review procedure is attached.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

Information Commissioners Office

01625 545760

____________________________________________________________________

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please inform the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies.
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Communication by Internet e-mail is not secure as messages can be
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Any e-mail including its content may be monitored and used by the
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The Information Commissioner's office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended
and you should perform your own virus checks.

____________________________________________________________________

[3]http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
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References

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Steve Wood,

Dear Mr Skene

Review of the ICO response to your FOI request for the current ICO case
list

FOI/991

In light of the comments made about our response to the above request the
ICO has decided to review its response to the part of your request for "a
synopsis (or title) of the case"

As Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for FOI Policy I will be
undertaking the review, I will contact you again shortly with the
outcome. In the meantime if you have any further comments you would like
to make about the request please contact me.

Regards

Steve

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner - FOI Policy

Information Commissioner's Office

Tel: 01625 545706
email: [1][email address]

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

____________________________________________________________________

If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.

Communication by Internet e-mail is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to e-mail any information which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by e-mail you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.

Any e-mail including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. This
includes the content of e-mails. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may
also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure
that any e-mail you write or forward is within the bounds of the law.

The Information Commissioner's office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended
and you should perform your own virus checks.

____________________________________________________________________

[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2007/11/0032.) On
leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

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2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

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Dear Steve,

Ref FOI/991

Many thanks for your email of 18th July. I presume you are referring to the comments made on the BBC Open Secrets blog <<http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/2...>>. I'd like to point out that the comments quoted on the blog relating to how you handled the case were not made by me.

If your review finds that you you are able to disclose some of the synopses or titles (ie the subject matter) of the cases, especially the very old outstanding ones from 2005, that would be very much appreciated.

In an ideal world, I'd like to see this kind of information published and kept up-to-date on your website (as per the Scottish IC) as it really increases the visibility of the FOI process.

Kind regards,

Alex Skene

Steve Wood,

Dear Mr Skene,

I have now completed my review of your FOI request FOI/991. I have
concluded that the original response stating the ICO held no information
that fell within the part of your request for a synopsis/title of each
case in the current caseload was incorrect. The ICO does hold
information that would fall within your request.

Most of this information is held in weekly produced spreadsheets, held
outside our case management system. This covers cases received between
August 2006 to the date of your request. Rather than send you over 100
spreadsheets we will collate this information into a single spreadsheet,
as we acknowledge there is also some wider public interest in seeing the
information and it will be more readable in this form. It will also be
possible to retrieve and extract the information for the older cases
January 2005 - August 2006. I expect us to be able to send you a full
response in the next two weeks.

The ICO acknowledges that there is a public interest in seeing the
information you requested on a regular basis and the ICO is actively
considering how to make this information available on the website.

Regards

Steve

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner - FOI Policy

Information Commissioner's Office

____________________________________________________________________

If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.

Communication by Internet e-mail is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to e-mail any information which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by e-mail you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.

Any e-mail including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. This
includes the content of e-mails. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may
also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure
that any e-mail you write or forward is within the bounds of the law.

The Information Commissioner's office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended
and you should perform your own virus checks.

____________________________________________________________________

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2007/11/0032.) On
leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

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Steve Wood,

Dear Mr Skene,

We are currently retrieving and collating the information in response to
your request, as set out in my response to your internal review.

Having started this work we have found that data for 500 cases has not
been recorded in the spreadsheets in the way we had assumed and therefore
we will have to extract and retrieve much more of the information held
directly from our case management system, this process involves a member
of staff looking through each case file to retrieve/extract the subject
recorded in the case documents. We have already spent over two and half
days retrieving the information, in excess of the cost limit -L-450 (18
hours x -L-25/hr) as set out in the FOI Fees Regulations. In light of
this we are now not obliged to comply with the request by virtue of
section 12 of the Act but we still wish to supply you with the information
as we have acknowledged there is a wider public interest in the
information and it would not be best practice to refuse to supply the
information because of some problems in the way we previously recorded the
information. We have now improved the way we record this information.

It will therefore take us a little longer to send you the information; we
now aim to send it by the middle of September.

Regards

Steve

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner - FOI Policy

Information Commissioner's Office

____________________________________________________________________

If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.

Communication by Internet e-mail is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to e-mail any information which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by e-mail you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.

Any e-mail including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. This
includes the content of e-mails. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may
also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure
that any e-mail you write or forward is within the bounds of the law.

The Information Commissioner's office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended
and you should perform your own virus checks.

____________________________________________________________________

[1]http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2007/11/0032.) On
leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.gov.uk/

hide quoted sections

Dear Steve,

Ref FOI/991

Thank you very much for the update, and I very much appreciate the extra effort you and your staff are having to make for this request.

Kind regards,

Alex

Internal Compliance Team,

1 Attachment

Our Reference: FOI/991

Dear Mr Skene

Further to my email dated 14 August 2008.

We have now produced a summary for each currently open and eligible
complaint we are dealing with under the Freedom of Information Act and the
Environmental Information Regulations, which is attached. This summary
includes the:

. Case reference number;

. name of the public authority involved

. whether the complaint relates to Freedom of Information or
Environmental Information;

. team the complaint is currently assigned to and whether the case
has been assigned to a case officer for consideration

. date the complaint was deemed eligible for consideration by the
ICO (this will usually be the date it was received unless it was not
properly made and we needed to ask for further information to determine
its eligibility);

. summary of the information requested from the public authority;
and

. the sector in which the public authority operates.

We have now pulled together these case summaries into a single report
showing all the eligible FoI and EIR complaints currently open at the end
of June 2008. We intend to update and publish this report on a monthly
basis in the near future.

It is also important to note that the complaints listed on this report
have only been deemed `eligible' for consideration by the ICO in line with
our duty under the FoIA and the EIRs. No determination has been made as
to whether any breach of legislation/regulations has occurred. This will
only be confirmed when our case officers conclude their investigations.

I hope that this information is of help and assistance.

Yours sincerely

Steve Wood

Assistant Commissioner

____________________________________________________________________

If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail (and any attachment),
please inform the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies.
Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
Communication by Internet e-mail is not secure as messages can be
intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not
to e-mail any information which if disclosed to unrelated third parties
would be likely to cause you distress If you have an enquiry of this
nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you
in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by e-mail you must realise
that there can be no guarantee of privacy.
Any e-mail including its content may be monitored and used by the
Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for
monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. This
includes the content of e-mails. E-mail monitoring / blocking software may
also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure
that any e-mail you write or forward is within the bounds of the law.
The Information Commissioner's office cannot guarantee that this message
or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended
and you should perform your own virus checks.
____________________________________________________________________

http://www.ico.gov.uk or e-mail: [email address]

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2007/11/0032.) On
leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

hide quoted sections

Dear Steve,

Thank you very much for providing this information, it is much appreciated, especially given that you and your office have spent much time above and beyond the
statutory limits of the FOIA. Please pass on my thanks to those who have spent time compiling the information.

Kind regards,

Alex Skene

Francis Irving left an annotation ()

BBC post about how the ICO is now going to start publishing this information routinely.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/2...

Well done everyone involved in making that happen! It is much appreciated.