geographic telephone numbers for TV licensing

British Broadcasting Corporation did not have the information requested.

Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear Sir or Madam,

I request a list of all geographic numbers corresponding to the following non-geographic phone numbers on a recent communication I had from TV licensing:

0844 800 5899

0844 800 6760

0844 800 6778

0845 602 2320

If no direct equivalents are available then please provide the most appropriate alternatives.

Yours faithfully,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 about regional telephone numbers of TV licensing.
We shall 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 RFI20081156.

Kind regards.

The Information Policy and Compliance Team BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS, UK

show quoted sections

Elinor Davies left an annotation ()

If you want any of this information any sooner, you might try www.saynoto0870.com and search under TV Licence.

Good luck with your request

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

2 Attachments

<<RFI20081156 - final response.pdf>> <<RFI20081156 - disclosure -
Breakdown of Costs of Collection - 2008 (financial year).pdf>>

Dear Mr Sittampalam

Please find attached the response to your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

Yours sincerely

Fern Kersey
Adviser, Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252
BBC 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

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
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Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of British Broadcasting Corporation's handling of my FOI request 'geographic telephone numbers for TV licensing'.

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

I believe that you have not considered the public interest test appropriately; your assessment looks very similar/identical to many other FOI responses you have made that are only marginally related.

Please consider the following additional factors in favour of disclosure:

- People outside the UK are unable to call 0844 numbers. This might be necessary when dealing with the affairs of UK property, for example.

- It often costs more to call the 0844 number than the equivalent geographic number, particularly for people using mobile phones or who live in the local area of the geographic number. Since you receive a rebate from the calls, they are indirectly paying you to speak to you.

- You strongly emphasise the use of the telephone to contact you. For example, in a recent letter I received, it stated that "If you have a licence for this address in someone else's name, please call our License Confirmation Line,...", without suggesting any other means of contacting you that applied to these circumstances. I would note that in this particular situation people are being expected to spend their money and time on remedying a defect in your own systems, since you could easily verify for yourselves that a licence is held at the address and that the address is very likely to be a single household.

- There is considerable public concern about organisations making money from 0844/0870 numbers, as evidenced by the existence of websites such as www.saynoto0870.com

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Sittampalam,
We have received your request for an internal review relating to
geographic telephone numbers for TV licensing. Your request for an
internal review was received on Friday 21st November. We shall deal with
the review as promptly as possible and, at the latest, within 30 working
days. If you have any queries please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your internal review is IR2008040.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
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.
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Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear FOI Enquiries,

You will no doubt be aware that the Information Commissioner has now ordered the release of geographic phone numbers in a similar case: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/d...

Given this precedent, please release the information immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Sittampalam
I'm sorry to inform you that there will be a delay in us issuing our
internal review decision in relation to your request made under the terms
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We are endeavouring to provide a response as soon as possible but we are
reconsidering our position on this matter in light of the recent ICO
decision regarding disclosure of geographic numbers. If we have been
unable to send a response by Friday 16th January, we will write again to
update you on the progress of your request.

Kind Regards

BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
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.
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Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear FOI Enquiries,

I remind you of your promise to send an update by 16th January, i.e. yesterday, and of the fact that it will shortly be 40 working days since I made my internal review request.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

With reference to your email of 17th January, please accept our
apologies for the further delay in issuing our internal review decision
in relation to your request made under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. We are endeavouring to provide a response as soon
as possible but this has been delayed due to the recent ICO decision
that you're aware of and our internal discussions in light of that
decision which included consideration by the BBC as to whether it will
lodge an appeal against this decision.

I hope to be in a position to send your response by Friday 23rd January,
but if this is not the case I will write again by Monday 26th to update
you on the progress of your request.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

show quoted sections

Mr Ormerod left an annotation ()

This is totally unacceptable. I would be referring this matter to the ICO without delay.

Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear FOI Enquiries,

The ICO's decision notice was issued on 11th December. Since you had 28 days to appeal, this decision must have made been made over two weeks ago. What was it?

Secondly, it has now been 42 working days since my review request. You will no doubt be aware that the ICO considers that internal reviews should never take longer than 40 days, and the public authority needs to able to demonstrate that it has commenced the review procedure promptly and worked on it actively throughout the period.

Therefore, please could you provide me with details of what work you have done so far on the review, together with the dates this work was done.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

It is my understanding that the ICO decision related to a different set
of non-geographic numbers, and that therefore the specific issues
relating to those numbers were different to the issues relating to the
numbers covered by this review.

However I can confirm that the decision with reference to your internal
review has been made, and the response prepared.

We are awaiting confirmation on one final point and I hope to be in a
position to send your review decision no later than tomorrow Tuesday
27th January.

Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

show quoted sections

Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear FOI Enquiries,

Although the earlier request covered a different set of geographic numbers, the ICO's judgement makes it clear that the arguments that you advanced in support of the section 43 exemption were the same as the arguments you have advanced in this case. Since they were comprehensively rejected by the ICO, it would be ludicrous for you to claim that they can still be validly applied here if you have not appealed his judgement.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please find attached our decision in relation to your Internal Review.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in issuing this response, which
as you're aware was due to the Information Commissioner issuing a decision
on a similar issue in the intervening space following receipt of your
request.

<<IR2008040 - Internal Review Decision.pdf>>

Kind Regards

L Wright
BBC Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[2]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
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Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation ()

So...my request asked for "all geographic numbers", and they said there aren't any "fixed equivalent geographical numbers" and therefore they don't hold the information (except in one case where there is a fixed one). However it's clear from what they said that there are numbers, they just vary based on the time of day.

What next? New request making it clear I want any geographic number at all seems the obvious choice.

Ganesh Sittampalam

Dear FOI Enquiries,

Your reviewer appears to have misinterpreted my original request - I asked for all geographic numbers corresponding to the non-geographic ones I listed, not just ones that don't vary according to the time of day or other factors. Would you like to reconsider this decision? Otherwise I will submit a fresh request.

Yours sincerely,

Ganesh Sittampalam

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sittampalam,

Please find attached the response to your request for information which
has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act
2000. We have not met the 20 working day deadline for this response and
we would like to offer our apologies for this delay.

<<RFI20090277 - final response.pdf>>
Kind Regards

Louise Wright
Information Policy and Compliance

BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [2][BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

[3]http://www.bbc.co.uk
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
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.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.

References

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