DPP permission to prosecute

W Hunter made this Freedom of Information request to Crown Prosecution Service This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was refused by Crown Prosecution Service.

Dear Crown Prosecution Service,

Please provide any information held regarding how many requests have been made to the DPP requesting permission to initiate prosecution under section 173 of the DPA 2018 since it's inception.

Please specify how those requests were made i.e. where they arrived within the CPS, to which department or address, and any process followed to the person within the CPS who issued the response.

Please specify the name and or position of the person issuing the response, i.e. the DPP or a member of staff on behalf of the DPP, and confirm in the cases where the DPP did not deal with the case themselves, whether the DPP signed off on the decision made by that member of staff.

Please specify any document / policy or statute which allows a member of staff who is not the DPP to respond to requests made under section 173 of the DPA in light of section 197(1)(b) of the DPA which states "by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions"

Please provide any information regarding whether there is any right to appeal any decision made by a member of staff on behalf of the DPP, to the DPP themselves.

Of the requests made to the DPP in respect to section 173 of the DPA, please specify how many were granted and how many denied citing the reasons given for each decision i.e. in respect to the full code test whether insufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution or Not in the public interest.

Please give the details of each organisation named as the defendant in each case.

Yours faithfully,

W Hunter

Freedom of Information Unit, Crown Prosecution Service

Dear W Hunter,

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request -  ref 8742

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which we received
on the 09 October 2019.

 

The FOI Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. This
means that any information disclosed under the FOI Act by definition
becomes available to the wider public.

 

There is a 20 working day limit in which we are required to respond to
requests.

 

The deadline for your request is the 06 November 2019.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Management Unit

020 3357 0788

[1][email address]

 

 

 

 

 

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References

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Freedom of Information Unit, Crown Prosecution Service

1 Attachment

Dear W Hunter,

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request – Ref 8742

 

Please find attached our response to your Freedom of Information request,
reference 8742.

 

Many thanks

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Management Unit

020 3357 0788

[1][email address]

 

 

 

 

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If you are not an intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy.

Activity and use of departmental systems and the Criminal Justice Extranet is monitored to secure their effective operation and for other lawful business purposes. Communications using these systems will also be monitored and may be recorded to secure effective operation and for other lawful business purposes.
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1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Crown Prosecution Service,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Crown Prosecution Service's handling of my FOI request 'DPP permission to prosecute' on the grounds that I myself have submitted 4 requests for permission to prosecute to the CPS North East.

The Crown Prosecutor who was allocated to respond specified that his responses were to be sent to CPS London for approval prior to being sent to me.

He has so far responded to 3 of the 4 requests and the result was my formal complaint to the DPP for misconduct in public office by that crown prosecutor.

My fourth request has not received a response as yet.

I therefore do not believe your response when you state "The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has no record of any requests made to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in respect of section 173 of the DP 2018 as described in part one of your request. We are therefore unable to provide answers to points two and three." as I know for a fact that such records exist.

I believe your response indicates a total inability of your organisation to respond correctly to a FOIA request or a deliberate criminal offence under section 77 of the FOIA.

I would suggest that the head of your department make the DPP aware of this situation with a view to getting them to respond to this request with the actual information which they at least should be aware of.

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,

W Hunter

P.S. the telephone number supplied with your response rings for approximately two minutes before the line goes silent

W Hunter

[email address]

05 November 2019

Ref: 8742

Dear W Hunter,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which we received on 09 October 2019.

The FOI Act gives you the right to know whether we hold the information you want and to have it communicated to you, subject to any exemptions which may apply. It is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. This means that any information disclosed under the FOI Act by definition becomes available to the wider public.

Your request, numbered for ease of reference

1. Please provide any information held regarding how many requests have been made to the DPP requesting permission to initiate prosecution under section 173 of the DPA 2018 since its inception.

2. Please specify how those requests were made i.e. where they arrived within the CPS, to which department or address, and any process followed to the person within the CPS who issued the response.

3. Please specify the name and or position of the person issuing the response, i.e. the DPP or a member of staff on behalf of the DPP, and confirm in the cases where the DPP did not deal with the case themselves whether the DPP signed off on the decision made by that member of staff.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has no record of any requests made to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in respect of section 173 of the DP 2018 as described in part one of your request. We are therefore unable to provide answers to points two and three.

4. Please specify any document / policy or statute which allows a member of staff who is not the DPP to respond to requests made under section 173 of the DPA in light of section 197(1) (b) of the DPA which states "by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions"

5. Please provide any information regarding whether there is any right to appeal any decision made by a member of staff on behalf of the DPP, to the DPP themselves.

The Crown Prosecution Service does not hold any document, policy or information as described in points four and five.

6. Of the requests made to the DPP in respect to section 173 of the DPA, please specify how many were granted and how many denied citing the reasons given for each decision i.e. in respect to the full code test whether insufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution or Not in the public interest.

7. Please give the details of each organisation named as the defendant in each case.

There is no record of any request as described made, therefore we are unable to provide answers to points six and seven.

If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by responding in writing to one of the addresses below within two months of the date of this response. The internal review will be handled by a member of CPS staff who has not been involved with your original request.

[email address]

Information Management Unit
Floor 8
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate any aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning their investigation.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit
020 3357 0788
[email address]

Information Access Team, Crown Prosecution Service

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Hunter IR.8742.20 FOI internal review response re issued on 2.12.2020.doc

    123K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Hunter,

 

Please find attached response to your Freedom of Information Internal
Review request 8742.

 

Please note this internal review response was previously sent to an email
address ending in yahoo.com on 31 ^ March 2020.

Yours sincerely,

Information Access Team

Crown Prosecution Service

8th Floor, 102 Petty France, London SW1H 9EA

T: 020 3357 0788

E: [1][CPS request email]

 

 

 

*********************************************************************+
This e-mail is private and is intended only for the addressee and any copy recipients. Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.
If you are not an intended recipient, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy.

Activity and use of departmental systems and the Criminal Justice Extranet is monitored to secure their effective operation and for other lawful business purposes. Communications using these systems will also be monitored and may be recorded to secure effective operation and for other lawful business purposes.
*********************************************************************

References

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1. mailto:[CPS request email]

Dear C MacIvor

Neither of the links provided in this response actually link to any document, they both result in a 404 error message that the page cannot be found, please therefore provide working links or copies of the information the links were supposed to disclose.

In addition, the request for review response you have posted today states "Please note this internal review response was previously sent to an email address ending in yahoo.com on 31 ^ March 2020."

Please explain why a FOIA request for internal review posted on this website, regarding the FOIA request made via this website resulted in your department allegedly sending the review response to an email address which is not included on this website? and why that response was not posted here in the first place?

I did receive an email from Ms Jackie Ronchetti, the DPO for the CPS on the 31st March 2020 and it included this statement:

"Request for an Internal Review of FOI request response

I understand that you made two FOI requests in 2019 under references FOI 8578 and FOI 8742. You subsequently asked for an Internal Review for FOI 8578 and our response was sent 19 July 2019. I believe you also asked for an Internal Review in respect of FOI 8742 but the IMU has no record of having received this request; I note however you have provided a copy of the request, dated 15 November 2019, that exists on your What Do They Know page on the internet. The IMU cannot explain this oversight but I would like to apologise for any unnecessary inconvenience that may have been caused. I understand that the Internal Review for FOI 8742 has now been completed and a substantive response will be provided shortly. "

As you can see, Ms Ronchetti has apparently been told by the IMU that my internal review request processed via this website which shows it as having been delivered to your department on the 15 November 2019 resulted in your apparently having no record of that request at all.

She then refers to the review request on the site as being a copy of the presumably original request when it was in fact the original request which you had ignored.

As you may already be aware, I have made a SAR to the CPS for all documentation held, only for the CPS to refuse to provide any documentation until I provide two forms of ID because the Data Controller of the CPS is refusing to comply with the requirements of law as specified and is apparently attempting to maintain that the CPS does not reasonably believe me to be the person entitled to receive the information requested.

And yet the same Data Controller, has allegedly responded to this FOIA request, to the email address ending in @yahoo.com (the very same email address the SAR originated from) in the firm belief that the person making this FOIA request (and the subsequent SAR ) were one in the same person and fully entitled to receive the information at that email address without any further identification.

Since you claim to have clearly communicated the FOIA internal review response to that email address whilst refusing to comply with a valid SAR from that same email address can you please specify whether you have deliberately committed :

A. A criminal offence under section 173 of the DPA by refusing to comply with a formal SAR from an applicant who's identity is not in question?

Or

B. an offence under the DPA of knowingly communicating information regarding a living breathing individual to a recipient which you reasonably believe was not entitled to receive that information?

I would appreciate a response to this communication as soon as possible please as I have already waited over a year for the original response which should have been received within 20 working days of the original review request.

Yours sincerely,

W Hunter