Governance: Responsibility for FoI requests following local government reorganisation in Northamptonshire

The request was refused by Northamptonshire County Council.

Alastair Thomson

Dear Northamptonshire County Council,

Following the establishment of shadow unitary councils for West and North Northamptonshire next month (May 2020), can you explain:

1. what, if any, responsibilities those new bodies will have for answering Freedom of Information (FoI) requests that are currently the responsibility of Northamptonshire County Council and of the borough/district councils that they will replace?

2. How and when Northamptonshire County Council will transfer responsibility for answering FoI requests about the services for which it is currently responsible to the new West and North Northamptonshire Councils from May 2021?

Many thanks
Yours faithfully,

Alastair Thomson

Freedom of Information, Northamptonshire County Council

Thank you for your email. 

 

Please note that due to the emerging Coronavirus pandemic Northamptonshire
County Council will have difficulties in responding to requests received
under the Freedom of Information Act or the Environmental Information
Regulations within the time limits imposed by the legislation.  This is
because staff are being redeployed to services which the Council is
obliged to prioritise above this Service during this time.

 

While such requests can be submitted and registered it is unlikely that
they will be attended to at least until the Service is resumed on or
after 1st June should circumstances permit. We apologise for the
inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding. 
Further we would strongly urge you to consider whether your request is
still required or can be delayed until after the pandemic is over.

Freedom of Information, Northamptonshire County Council

I am writing to you in respect of the Freedom of Information request below that you previously submitted to Northamptonshire County Council and subsequent to the COVID-19 outbreak.

As we have previously stated, we had reviewed the way in which we were processing requests due to allocation of resources within the organisation. I am writing today to confirm that we are now in a better position to complete your request should you still want the information.

If you do, please simply reply back to this email stating that you still wish to receive the information and we will process your request as a new submission. If we do not hear back from you within the next 28 days we will assume that you no longer wish to receive the information.

Services within the organisation that provide responses to our requests are still experiencing resource issues and therefore they may not be in a position to respond as quickly as they would in normal circumstances. If this is the case we will keep you informed as to the progress of your request and likely timescale changes that may occur as a result.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult period.

Kind regards

Tracey Gilkes
FOI / DP Admin
Northamptonshire County Council
ONE Angel Square
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED

e: [email address]
[Northamptonshire County Council request email]

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