Flagrant Disregard Toward FOI Requests

The request was successful.

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

In light of the fact that the BBC have one of the worst records for delaying FOI requests as well as deliberate attempts to ignore follow up queries and requests for internal reviews I would like to know the following information:

1) How many staff work in the FOI department of the BBC either full or part time
2) The average time taken for completion of FOI requests
3) The number of enforcement notices that have been issued to the BBC FOI department by the ICO in the past year.
4) The number of outstanding FOI requests that have yet to be fulfilled and have fallen outside the 30 day requirement.

I do hope that you will not wilfully disregard and intentionally waylay this request as you have done to countless others on the Whatdotheyknow site. I expect a reply in keeping with the FOI guidelines as set down by the ICO.

Yours faithfully,

Rob Willis

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as detailed in your email below. Your request was received on 1st July 2012. We will deal with your request as promptly as possible, and at the latest within 20 working days. If you have any queries about your request, please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your request is RFI20120707.

Kind regards,

The Information Policy & Compliance Team
BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS
www.bbc.co.uk/foi <outbind://18/www.bbc.co.uk/foi>
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2882
Fax: 020 8008 2398

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Willis [mailto:[FOI #120824 email]]
Sent: 01 July 2012 18:38
To: FOI Enquiries
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Flagrant Disregard Toward FOI Requests

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

In light of the fact that the BBC have one of the worst records for
delaying FOI requests as well as deliberate attempts to ignore
follow up queries and requests for internal reviews I would like to
know the following information:

1) How many staff work in the FOI department of the BBC either full
or part time
2) The average time taken for completion of FOI requests
3) The number of enforcement notices that have been issued to the
BBC FOI department by the ICO in the past year.
4) The number of outstanding FOI requests that have yet to be
fulfilled and have fallen outside the 30 day requirement.

I do hope that you will not wilfully disregard and intentionally
waylay this request as you have done to countless others on the
Whatdotheyknow site. I expect a reply in keeping with the FOI
guidelines as set down by the ICO.

Yours faithfully,

Rob Willis

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Peter Jones left an annotation ()

They'll deny this problem even exists Rob.

People who work for the BBC are in some sort of parallel universe where the BBC is beyond reproach and anyone who dares to complain is in the wrong.

Just watch their Points of View and Newswatch programmes for evidence of this. It doesn't matter how woeful their programming is they'll always have an explanation to defend it.

I made a similar complaint to the BBC and their Head of Information Policy & Compliance, James Leaton Grey, wrote me a reply. You can read it here, as it might be of interest: http://tv-licensing.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...

Rob Willis left an annotation ()

Excellent blog Peter. I hope you're getting lots of regular traffic and top Google results.

In my estimation the BBC is nothing but the worlds biggest, most lavish soapbox for an army of talentless, self-indulgent marxist students who never left university.

Within the next decade they will be a technological and educational woolly mammoth (if they aren't already) and on the deserved road to total extinction. The only reason they survive each successive government is so that politicians have somewhere to send their offspring, as well as themselves, so they don't have to go out and find a proper job.

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

1 Attachment

 

Dear Mr Willis,

                

Please find attached the response to your request for information,
reference RFI20120707.

 

Yours sincerely

 

BBC Information Policy and Compliance

Room 2252, White City

201 Wood Lane

London W12 7TS, UK

 

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi

Email: [2]mailto:[BBC request email]

Tel: 020 8008 2883

Fax: 020 8008 2398

 

 

 

 

 
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views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in
reliance on it and notify the sender immediately.
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Rob Willis left an annotation ()

They don't keep records of response times yet can calculate an 87% average within the 20 day requirement? Ironic how that is even lower than the 83% response rate quoted when the BBC were crucifying the government for their appalling slowness at FOI last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13...

And as for enforcement notices, then the BBC might want to up it's game if it doesn't want to land itself in the High Court for contempt. It seems to be playing the same game of 'Let's ignore the peasants' that the IPCC were so fond of, until they got their knuckles rapped by the ICO.

http://foia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/enfor...