Impact of Covid-19 on FOI responsiveness
Dear Sir/Madam,
1. For the period 16th March – 17th July 2020 (i.e., when ICO had indicated a sympathetic approach to delay), provide precise data if available e.g., 15 out of 30 requests, and if not, provide an estimate e.g., 10%, for these questions:
(a) how many responses to FOI requests were issued within 20 working days of receipt by your organisation?
(b) how many responses to FOI review requests were issued within 20 working days of receipt of the request for an internal review?
(c) how many responses to FOI requests were issued within 21 and 60 working days of receipt by your organisation?
(d) how many responses to FOI review requests were issued within 21 and 60 working days of receipt of the request for an internal review?
2. For the period 18th July – 8th October 2020 (i.e., during the ‘preparing for recovery’ phase), provide precise data if available e.g., 15 out of 30 requests, and if not, provide an estimate e.g., 10%, for these questions:
(a) how many responses to FOI requests were issued within 20 working days of receipt by your organisation?
(b) how many responses to FOI review requests were issued within 20 working days of receipt of the request for an internal review?
(c) how many responses to FOI requests were issued within 21 and 60 working days of receipt by your organisation?
(d) how many responses to FOI review requests were issued within 21 and 60 working days of receipt of the request for an internal review?
3. During the period 1st March to 30th October 2020, provide precise data if available e.g., 15 out of 30 requests, and if not, provide an estimate e.g., 10%, for these questions:
(a) how many responses to FOI requests were issued more than 60 working days after receipt of the request?
(b) how many responses to FOI review requests were issued more than 60 working days after receipt of a request for an internal review?
4. When FOI request or review responses were issued more than 21 working days after receipt during the period 1st March and 30th October 2020, what were the main reasons for the delay? e.g., closure of premises due to Covid-19, reallocation of resources due to Covid-19, staff shortages due to Covid-19, absence of key staff due to Covid-19, limited access to necessary systems due to Covid-19, other issue related/unrelated to Covid19.
5. In relation to the FOI requests received by your organisation between 1st March and 30th October 2020, what proportion related directly to Covid-19, your organisation's Covid-19 response or impact of the pandemic on your organisation? (Provide precise data if available e.g., 15 out of 30 requests, and if not, provide an estimate e.g., 10%)
6. On 17th July 2020 the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launched a self-assessment Freedom of Information toolkit (FOI self-assessment toolkit | ICO) to help public authorities respond to FOI requests as they prepared to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
- Does, or has your organisation ever, use/d the toolkit? If so, please explain whether it has it had any positive outcomes.
- If your organisation has not/does not make use of the toolkit, please explain why not.
7. In response to Covid19, has the volume of information your organisation publishes:
- not changed
- significantly increased
- significantly decreased
- don’t know
8. Has your organisation taken steps to proactively publish information relating to Covid-19, your organisation's Covid-19 response or the impact of the pandemic on your organisation? If it includes a dedicated webpage, please provide a link to the webpage.
If you wish to contact me for more information before responding, please see my contact details below.
Thank you for your time and effort in responding to these questions.
Yours faithfully,
Karen
Dr Karen Mc Cullagh, Lecturer in Law
UEA Law School, 205 Earlham Hall, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ
Research webpage: https://www.karenmccullagh.co.uk/covid-1...
About me: https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/per...
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This is an automated message:
Thank you for your FOI request. The FOI team will formally acknowledge
receipt of your FOI request in due course.
However, in the meantime please consider the following. Due to the
current pandemic, staff within the Public Health Agency are working at
full capacity to respond to and manage the situation day by day. If you
have submitted an FOI request seeking COVID-19 related information, it is
those same staff who will have to be taken from this work and deployed in
order to provide you with a response.
Over the past few months, there has been an increasing amount of
information and statistics made available on the internet, updated on a
daily or weekly basis, in order to inform the public. This information
can be found at:
• [1]DoH Daily Dashboard
• [2]NISRA dashboard
• [3]PHAWeekly COVID 19 & Monthly Epidemiological Bulletins
If your FOI request is COVID-19 related, please take a look at these
resources online – perhaps they will provide the information you are
seeking. If they do, it would be extremely helpful to us if you would
withdraw your request to avoid us having to process your request further.
You can do this by sending a follow-up e-mail to the above email address
advising that you wish to withdraw your request.
If the web links above do not give you the information you are requesting,
or if your request is non-COVID-19 related, we will proceed with your
request as per our normal procedure. Please note that given the current
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the 20 day timeframe laid down in the FOI Act 2000 however, please be
assured that a response will be sent as soon as we are in a position to do
so.
Thank you
FOI team
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Dear Janine,
Thank you for responding to my request for information.
I really appreciate it.
Yours sincerely,
Karen
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