Document Scanning and Records Management

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, City of London Corporation should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear City of London Corporation,

1: Does the council have a dedicated on-site scanning team for paper records?
a: If so, how many FTE are within the team?
b: What volumes are the team scanning on a daily/weekly/monthly/annual basis?
c: Are the team scanning legacy records or day forward, or both?
d: what hardware & software is used by the team?
e: Is the hardware leased, rented or was it purchased outright?
f: Who is responsible within the council for the procurement of hardware and software? Please supply contact details.

2:If the council does not have a dedicated on-site scanning team, is there a contract for outsourced document scanning provisions?
a: If so, who is this contract with?
c: What is the value of the contract?
d: When is the contract due for renewal?

3: Does the council have on-site facilities to store paper records?
a: If so, how many FTE manage the facility?
b: What is the cost to the council monthly/annually? Include real-estate, FTE, systems and transport.

4: Does the council have contract(s) for off-site storage?
a: If so, who is the contract with?
A1: What is the annual cost of off-site storage for the council?
b: Does the contract include scan on demand or digitising services?
c: If so, what volumes of pages / images are scanned daily/weekly/monthly/annually?
d: What is the annual cost for outsourced scanning – either on-demand or scheduled?

5: Are there departments within the council that scan their own documents locally?
a: If so, what hardware and software is used to manage this?
b: Are volumes captured? If so, what are they?
c:What types of documents are scanned?

6: Who in the council is responsible for records / document management programmes/systems?
A: Please provide contact details

7: Who in the council manages the contract(s) relationships with hardware providers and outsourced storage or scanning providers?
A: Please provide contact details

Yours faithfully,

Daniel Stonard

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Stonard,

 

Agent Query

 

Thank you for your request, below, of 16 April 2019 to the City of London
(CoL).

 

The CoL would like to confirm that your request is a valid request under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Please note that section 8 of the
FOIA states as follows:

 

"8.—(1) In this Act any reference to a 'request for information' is a
reference to such a request which—

… (b) states the name of the applicant …"

 

Before we progress your request, please would you confirm the name of any
organisation on whose behalf your request is made. In considering this,
please note the guidance “Recognising a request made under the Freedom of
Information Act (Section 8)” (version 1.2, 2 Nov 2016), published on the
website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at:

 

[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

 

At paragraphs 42 and 43, the guidance states that, to be a valid request,
“the request must state the real name of the party on whose behalf the
agent is acting … A request which only includes the real name of the agent
will be invalid”.

 

It is clear that the section 12 and section 14(1) provisions of the Act
could be circumvented where the party on whose behalf the agent is acting
is not stated.

 

Incidentally, in such circumstances paragraph 19 of the guidance would
also seem to apply. In other words, if someone were acting as an 'agent',
and not disclosing this to the public authority receiving the request,
then the ICO would not consider the request a valid request and therefore
could not mange any complaint about the response to it.

 

We look forward to receiving the name of any person or organisation on
whose behalf you may be acting, or confirmation that you are not acting on
behalf of any other person or organisation.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Officer

Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department

City of London

Tel: 020-7332 1209

[2]http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

 

 

 

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Dear COL-EB-InformationOfficer,

Hi, My name is below.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Stonard

COL-EB-InformationOfficer, City of London Corporation

Dear Mr Stonard,

Thank you for your email and the confirmation of your name.

In our email to you, we were requesting information in regards to whether you were making this request on your own behalf or on the behalf of a third party, in accordance with the FOIA. Once we receive this further information we will be able to progress your request.

Kind regards

Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor’s Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk

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