Datasets & Type of Data Held for Various Benefits About Claimants

John Slater made this Freedom of Information request to Department for Work and Pensions This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Department for Work and Pensions.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I know that the DWP publishes data on the https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk website but this request is not for actual data or just the type of data that maybe show on this website.

RFI1 - What datasets does the DWP hold on its standard IT systems (i.e. excluding bespoke datasets held by local offices) about claimants in respect of:
• ESA
• IB
• PIP
• DLA
• JSA
• Universal Credit

RFI2 – For the datasets from RFI1 what type of data is held? Please note I only want to know the type of data held not the actual data.

For the avoidance of doubt a dataset is a collection of data. Most commonly a data set corresponds to the contents of a single database table, or a single statistical data matrix, where every column of the table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given member of the data set in question.

If the Department is unsure about any aspect of my request please seek clarification.

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Datasets & Type of Data Held for Various Benefits About Claimants'.

The Department should have provided its response by 27 March 2018. Unless I receive a response within the next 24 hours I will complain to the Commissioner.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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TECHNOLOGY Freedom of Information Mailbox, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

 

Please see attached. I am very sorry for the delay in not sending this
response by the original deadline of 26 March.

Any further information requests should be put in as Freedom of
Information requests to:

Address: The Department for Work and Pensions, Central FoI Team, Level 4,
Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H. Email:
[1][DWP request email]

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information – Digital Group Parliamentary Business Team |
Department for Work and Pensions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Datasets & Type of Data Held for Various Benefits About Claimants'.

Section 24 - Required for the purposes of safeguarding national security
The Department’s reliance on S.24 has not been made out. It has failed to meet the most basic requirements to engage S.24.

S.24 applies where withholding the information is “required for the purposes of safeguarding national security”. It is not sufficient for the information sought simply to relate to national security; there must be a clear basis for arguing that disclosure would have an adverse effect on national security before the exemption is engaged.”

In order to engage S.24 the Department must show:
1. Why the requested information is “required for the purposes of safeguarding national security”.
2. That disclosure would undermine national security (a causal effect).

The Department has failed to show this to date and frankly I fail to see how it can so going forwards.

I will address the public interest test later.

Section 31 – Law Enforcement
The Department has failed to explain which subsection and paragraph of S.31 it is claiming to engage.

Based on the limited information provided by the Department I assume that it is relying on S.31(1)(a) the prevention or detection of crime.

The Department has clearly failed to address the prejudice test in respect of S.31 and this further damages its reliance on this exemption. The Commissioner is clear that the Department must demonstrate that it has taken the following steps:

• One of the law enforcement interests protected by section 31 must be harmed by the disclosure.
• The prejudice claimed must be real, actual or of substance. Therefore, if the harm was only trivial, the exemption would not be engaged.
• The public authority must be able to demonstrate a causal link between the disclosure and the harm claimed.
• The public authority must then decide what the likelihood of the harm actually occurring is, ie would it occur, or is it only likely to occur?

The Department hasn’t demonstrated a causal link between disclosure of the requested information and the harm claimed. Further it has failed to address the likelihood of the harm actually occurring. I suggest that the Department read the Commissioner’s published guidance on the prejudice test.

I will address the public interest test later.

“Harm” claimed by the Department
The claim that disclosing the datasets held and the type of information they contain would allow individuals to attempt to circumvent the Department’s security controls is not credible. A suitable analogy would be a library claiming that it can’t tell people what books, periodicals and other types of publications it holds as that would allow people to break into the library itself.

If the Department’s IT security is so poor that it truly believes that disclosing the requested information would compromise it then I suggest that there is a very strong public interest in the Department explaining why this is the case.

Public Interest Test
The Department’s public interest test is inadequate. I suggest that the Department refer to the Commissioner’s published guidance on carrying out the public interest test if it hopes to rely on these exemptions going forward. Binding Upper Tribunal judgements mean that any public interest text must be “contents based” rather than consisting of bland generic statements that the Department usually relies on.

I also remind that Department that the Commissioner has been highly critical of previous public interest tests it has carried out.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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DWP IGS FOI, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear John Slater

Please see the attached file regarding your FOI request.

Thank you,

Statistical Services Freedom of Information Team
 
 
 
 

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TECHNOLOGY Freedom of Information Mailbox, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

 

Please see attached.

 

Any further information requests should be put in as Freedom of
Information requests to:

Address: The Department for Work and Pensions, Central FoI Team, Level 4,
Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H. Email:
[1][DWP request email]

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information – Digital Group Parliamentary Business Team |
Department for Work and Pensions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lamb Christopher Digital Group Manchester Corporate HUB, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

 

Please see attached.

 

Any further information requests should be put in as Freedom of
Information requests to:

Address: The Department for Work and Pensions, Central FoI Team, Level 4,
Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H. Email:
[1][DWP request email]

Kind regards,

 

Freedom of Information – Digital Group Parliamentary Business Team |
Department for Work and Pensions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If you are not the intended recipient any disclosure, copying,
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Dear Lamb Christopher Digital Group Manchester Corporate HUB,

The Information Commissioner's decision notice FS50767053, dated 25 April 2019, finds that the Department has incorrectly applied sections 24(2) and 31(3) of the FOIA to refuse my request for information. Therefore, I look forward to the Department disclosing the requested information without undue delay.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

Department for Work and Pensions

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Technology Freedom of Information Mailbox, Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear Mr Slater

 

Please see attached the response to the ICO Decision Notice.

 

Best regards

 

 

Parliamentary Business Team

 

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If you are not the intended recipient any disclosure, copying,
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John Slater left an annotation ()

The Commissioner finally got around to issuing a decision notice for this RFI on 09 July 2020, ref FS50850101

https://icosearch.ico.org.uk/s/search.ht...

On the basis that I believe the Commissioner misrepresented what I said in my complaint & in my opinion failed to carry out the prejudice test correctly, I have appealed the case to the First-Tier Tribunal.

John Slater left an annotation ()

5 years after I submitted my request to the DWP I took the decision to withdraw my appeal.

This is because it is likely to drag on for the rest of 2023 & even if I do win any information will be over 5 years old and of no use whatsoever.