Identity of FOI applicant

Information Commissioner's Office did not have the information requested.

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

The Freedom of Information Act states explicitly that applicants can be a "natural or legal person". Therefore, an applicant can be an individual, or they can be an organisation.

Please supply any information held in recorded form which establishes that this does not apply to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Please supply any information held in recorded form which establishes that the Information Commissioner's current view is that an FOI request cannot be made by a named organisation, and the organisation must provide the name of a specific individual in order to make a valid request.

Please supply any information held in recorded form that explains why the Information Commissioner has adopted a strategy of refusing to treat valid FOI requests as such, just because the applicant is a legal person, and not a natural one.

Yours faithfully,

Bob Rivers

Information Commissioner's Office

Link: [1]File-List

02 September 2010

Case Reference Number IRQ0347397

Dear Mr Rivers

Request for Information

Thank you for your correspondence dated 01 September 2010, entitled
“Freedom of Information request - Identity of FOI applicant”.

Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  We will respond by 29 September 2010 which is 20
working days from the day after we received your request.

Should you wish to respond to this email please be careful not to amend
the information in the ‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the
information is added directly to your case. However, please be aware that
this is an automated process; the information will not be read by a member
of our staff until your case is allocated to a request handler.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Walsh

Lead Internal Compliance Officer

01625 545 363

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/rad9D315_files/filelist.xml

Leigh Park Initiative left an annotation ()

You may wish to view this FOI request which includes a dispute (resolved in favour of the requester) about failure to provide a proper name.
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/en...

Information Commissioner's Office

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List

16th September 2010

Case Reference Number IRQ0347397

Dear Mr Rivers

Dear Mr Rivers

I write with reference to your e-mail dated 1 September 2010 concerning
the Information Commissioner’s of information requests.  As you are
aware your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information
Act 2010.

Request:

You requested:
Please supply any information held in recorded form which
establishes that this does not apply to the Information
Commissioner's Office.

Please supply any information held in recorded form which
establishes that the Information Commissioner's current view is
that an FOI request cannot be made by a named organisation, and the
organisation must provide the name of a specific individual in
order to make a valid request.

Please supply any information held in recorded form that explains
why the Information Commissioner has adopted a strategy of refusing to
treat valid FOI requests as such, just because the applicant is a legal
person, and not a natural one.

Information

There is no recorded information held by this office which would fall
within the scope of your request.

The team which deals with all requests for information do so in accordance
with published guidance available to the public through the website.  The
view of the Commissioner remains that a legal person making a request is
valid request for the purposes of the Act.  If there has been any
misunderstanding that that remains the view of the Commissioner please
accept my sincere apologies.

Complaints process

If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received and wish to
request a review of our decision or make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to the Internal Compliance
Department at the address below/above or e-mail
[2][email address]

Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.

If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint
handler under the legislation.  To make such an application, please write
to the Case Reception Team, at the address below or visit the
‘Complaints’ section of our website to make a Freedom of Information
Act or Environmental Information Regulations complaint online.

 

A copy of our review procedure is attached.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/rad36E27_files/filelist.xml
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Information Commissioner’s Office,

I would like to request an internal review. I know of at least one example where a decision was made, at least initially, to refuse an FOI request because the applicant was an individual. The request was made on the WhatDoTheyKnow site, which is where I saw it and which is what prompted my request.

My request for a review is based on an assumption that there is likely to be some recorded information held in connection with the decision to refuse this request. I can see that the decision was subsequently reversed, but I would like a review because it seems strange that no information was recorded about the decision to refuse (which went against the Commissioner's own advice, as you have rightly pointed out).

Yours faithfully,

Bob Rivers

new casework,

Thank you for emailing the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). This is
an automated acknowledgement; please do not reply to this email.

If your email was a reply to an email we sent you it has now been attached
to your case and will be read when your correspondence is allocated to a
case officer.

If your case has already been allocated, the case officer will be in
contact when they have considered your email.
If your email was not a reply to an email from us it will be considered by
our Customer Contact Department. We will respond to you as soon as
possible or within 30 calendar days.

If you need more help, please contact our Helpline on 08456 30 60 60 or
01625 545745 if you prefer to use a national rate number or visit the
Contact us page of our website.

Yours sincerely

Customer Contact Department
The Information Commissioner's Office

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

Information Commissioner's Office

Link: [1]File-List

20th September 2010

Case Reference Number RCC0350219

Dear Mr Rivers

Thank you for your e-mail dated 16 September 2010.

This correspondence will now be treated as a request for review of your
recent request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will respond by 14 October 2010 which is 20 working days from the date
we received your recent correspondence.  This is in accordance with our
internal review procedures.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell

Internal Compliance Manager

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/radBB35B_files/filelist.xml

Information Commissioner's Office

Link: [1]File-List

11th October 2010

Case Reference Number RCC0350219

Dear Mr Rivers

Your request for an internal review of the handling of your information
request has been passed to me to undertake. I have carefully considered
all the relevant information, including your request, the response, and
your request for an internal review. I have reached the following
conclusion.  

Request

You requested:

The Freedom of Information Act states explicitly that applicants can be a
“natural or legal person”. Therefore, an applicant can be an
individual, or they can be an organisation.

Please supply any information held in recorded form which establishes that
this does not apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Please supply any information held in recorded form which establishes that
the Information Commissioner’s current view is that an FOI request
cannot be made by a named organisation, and the organisation must provide
the name of a specific individual in order to make a valid request.

Please supply any information held in recorded form that explains why the
Information Commissioner has adopted a strategy of refusing to treat valid
FOI requests as such, just because the applicant is a legal person, and
not a natural one.

Conclusion

It was explained to you that no information was held by this office which
would fall within the scope of your request. It was explained that it is
the view of the Information Commissioner that a legal person making a
request is a valid request for the purposes of the Act. This view has not
changed, and as a result, it is indeed the case that there is no
information held which falls within the scope of your request.

I am aware of one information request on the WhatDoTheyKnow website where
initially the name provided was not deemed to be sufficient. This error
was corrected and a full response was provided.

I have considered the recorded information relating to this information
request to determine whether there is any recorded information which
should have been provided to you in response to your request. I have
established that no recorded information is held. By way of clarification
it may be helpful to explain that case officers are not required to
document every decision that is made.

Therefore, in conclusion I have upheld the decision that no recorded
information is held by this office which would fall within the scope of
your request.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review you may make a
Section 50 complaint to ICO.

How to Complain

Information on how to complain is available on the ICO website at:  

[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...

By post: If your supporting evidence is in hard copy you can fill in the
online Complaint Form, print it out and post it to us with your supporting
evidence. A printable Freedom of Information Act complaints form is
available from the ICO website. Please send to:

First Contact Team

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

By email: If all your supporting evidence is available electronically, you
can fill in our online complaint form. Important: information included in
the form, and any supporting evidence will be sent to us by email.

Yours sincerely

Lesley Bett

Head of Internal Compliance

show quoted sections

Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.gov.uk

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/radC5582_files/filelist.xml
2. blocked::http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...