Freedom of Information request compliance
Dear Newcastle University,
I would like to know, during each of the calendar years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 (to date)
(i) On how many occasions has Newcastle University failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request within the statutory 20 working day time limit required by law.
(ii) On how many occasions, when an internal review has been requested, has Newcastle University failed to conduct an internal review and notify the requesting party of the outcome of the internal review within the 20 working day timeframe mentioned in the ICO Code of Practice.
I would like each of (i) and (ii) as an absolute number e.g. 4, and a percentage e.g. 10% of requests received.
Yours faithfully,
Raymond Perry
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Please accept this email as confirmation of receipt of your FOI request.
We will forward your FOI request to the relevant Newcastle University
department for processing.
Yours sincerely,
Information Governance Team
Executive Office
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Dear Raymond,
Thank you for your recent request for information. My sincere apologies
for the delay in responding to you. Please see the answers to your
questions below:
(i) On how many occasions has Newcastle University failed to respond to a
Freedom of Information Act request within the statutory 20 working day
time limit required by law.
2019 – Not Held in line with our retention schedule
2020 - 207
2021 - 211
2022 - 225
2023 (To date as of 20.04.23) – 43
Reasons for delays in responding to FOI’s within the statutory time limit
include instances where clarification has been sent to the requester and
not provided, the request was answered via other means (for example
through our student enquiries or press enquiries) as well as due to
limited resourcing.
(ii) On how many occasions, when an internal review has been requested,
has Newcastle University failed to conduct an internal review and notify
the requesting party of the outcome of the internal review within the 20
working day timeframe mentioned in the ICO Code of Practice.
For the year 2019 this information is not held in line with our retention
schedule. For the years 2020 to 2022, the information is not held in a
reportable format, therefore we would be required to review each
individual FOI request received over this time period. Whilst I can
confirm that the University does hold this information, to locate,
retrieve, and extract it would exceed 18 hours, and therefore the
appropriate limit of £450, calculated at a rate of £25 per hour as set out
in the applicable Fees Regulations. As such, we are applying the exemption
at Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act (2000).
Based on our records from 2023 we can confirm that there have been no
instances of Newcastle University failing to conduct an internal review
within the 20 working day timeframe.
I hope that this is of use. If you are unhappy with the way we have
handled your request you can ask for an internal review. Details of how to
do this can be found at: [1]http://www.ncl.ac.uk/foi/access/complain...
If you are not happy with the outcome of the internal review, you then
have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner's Office
for a decision. Details of how to do this can be found at:
[2]http://ico.org.uk/concerns
Yours sincerely,
Information Governance Team
Executive Office
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
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