Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service

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Dear Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service,

Oril Lewis
64 Bernard street
St Albans
Hertfordshire

My preferred form of access is to receive copies of the record by post.
In accordance with Section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act, I request access to
records which are Non-personal.
I request the following records of all court application made against and by Zenith Staybrite from 2009.

Yours faithfully,

O Lewis

Data Access & Compliance Unit, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Dear Oril Lewis,

Thank you for your request in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):

"I request the following records of all court application made against and by Zenith Staybrite from 2009"

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I have assessed your request for information, and unfortunately I will not be able to answer this without further clarification. Section 1(3) of the Freedom of Information Act does not oblige us to answer requests where we require further clarification to identify and locate the information requested.

To help us ensure that we provide you with the right information, I would be grateful if you could clarify your request, and identify what kind of court applications you would like the records for or identify the areas of the department you wish for us to conduct a search, for example a specific court or tribunal.

Please refer to the end of this letter for further information relating to the Freedom of Information Act, you can also find further information about what the Ministry of Justice does via our website: www.gov.uk

I hope this letter helps to explain the steps you need to take next to help us deal with your request.

Yours sincerely

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Freedom of Information - How to Appeal

Internal Review
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to an internal review. The handling of your request will be looked at by someone who was not responsible for the original case, and they will make a decision as to whether we answered your request correctly.

If you would like to request a review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the data of this letter, at the
following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit,
Information & Communications Directorate,
Ministry of Justice,
102 Petty France,
London
SW1H 9AJ

E-mail: [HMCTS request email]

Information Commissioner's Office
If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator who has the power to direct us to respond to your request differently, if he considers that we have handled it incorrectly.

You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Internet address: https://www.ico.org.uk/Global/contact_us

EXPLANATION OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

The Freedom of Information Act gives any person legal right of access to any and all recorded information which is held by a public authority.

Section 84 of the Act states that: in order for a request for information to be handled as a Freedom of Information request, it must be for recorded information. For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a copy of an HR policy, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy in place.

Section 1(3) of the Freedom of Information Act: We have included some extracts from the legislation, as well as some of the guidance we use when applying it. We hope you find this information useful.

The legislation

Section 1: General right of access to information held by public authorities.
(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled-
(a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and
(b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.
(2) Subsection (1) has effect subject to the following provisions of this section and to the provisions of sections 2, 9, 12 and 14.
(3) Where a public authority-
(a) reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the information requested, and
(b) has informed the applicant of that requirement,
the authority is not obliged to comply with subsection (1) unless it is supplied with that further information.
Guidance
Is the request clear and specific?
If the request is unclear or vague, the public authority are obliged to provide reasonable assistance to the person who made the request.
This means more than simply telling them that their request is not specific enough, the public authority should take reasonable steps to provide assistance to the requester. The aim should be to assist the requester to refine their request so that it becomes specific enough for the public authority to identify the information they want. Once the original request has been clarified, the public authority can continue to process the request in line with the Freedom of Information Act.

Please see the link to FOIA: Please see the link to FOIA: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000...

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