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30th May 2012

Case Reference Number IRQ0450629

Dear Mr Baines

Request for Information
 
Thank you for your correspondence dated 29 May 2012. 
 
Your request is being dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  We will respond promptly, and no later than 27 June
2012 which is 20 working days from the day after we received your request.
 
Should you wish to reply 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

Jolyon Stone
Lead Information Governance Officer

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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

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27th June 2012

Case Reference Number IRQ0450629

Dear Mr Baines

I am writing further to our email dated 30 May 2012 in which we
acknowledged your request for information to the Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
 
As previously explained we are treating your request as a request for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
 
Specifically your request stated;
“A very quick request: in June 2011 you uploaded a list of Information
Notices served since October 2009:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/how_we_co...

Do you have an up-to-date list? If so, may I have a copy?”
 
The list which you refer to on our Disclosure Log for April 2011 is a list
of Information Notices issued in relation to freedom of information
complaints from 27 October 2009 to 14 April 2011. 
 
We have conducted a search of our electronic case management system for
freedom of information complaints which are showing on our system as
having had an Information Notice issued since 14 April 2011 to 31 May
2012.
In answer to your request please refer to the attached document which
shows the reference number of the case, the date the notice was issued and
the name of the public authority.
 
I trust that the attached information is of use to you however 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 Information Governance Department at the
address below or e-mail [1][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 First Contact 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 available [2]here.

Yours sincerely

Joanne Crowley
Lead Information Governance Officer

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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. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/~/media/d...

PROTECT

27th June 2012

Case Reference Number RCC0454299

Dear Mr Baines

Thank you for your email of today's date in regard to our response to your
request for information.
 
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 25 July 2012 which is 20 working days from the date we
received your recent correspondence.  This is in accordance with our
internal review procedures.

Yours sincerely

Joanne Crowley
Lead Information Governance Officer

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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

12th July 2012

Case Reference Number RCC0454299

Dear Mr Baines

Your request for an internal review of 27 June 2012, concerning the
handling of your information request has been passed to me to undertake. 
I have carefully considered all the relevant information, including your
request, our response and the additional information provided in your
request for review.
 
Your initial request asked:
 
“In June 2011 you uploaded a list of Information Notices served since
October 2009.  Do you have an up-to-date list? If so, may I have a copy?”
 
The  response to your request provided a list of information notices,
dates they were served and the related organisation.  Your internal review
challenges whether you were provided with all the recorded information,
which fell within the scope of your request and it is on this point that
my review focuses.
 
It may be helpful in the first instance to explain the system used by the
ICO to record complaints submitted and how we extract management
information from that system.  This should put this review into context.
 
All complaints received by the ICO are put onto on our electronic case
management system.  The correspondence is scanned onto the system and an
electronic record is created for every complaint or case, every
complainant and every ‘complained about’ organisation or individual.
 
The system allows us to search for the cases we have dealt with in a
number of different ways, such as by the unique reference number the case
was given, the name and address of the person who contacted us and the
name of any public authority that has been complained about.  We can also
search for cases on the basis of the broad nature of the complaint, but we
can only search on a limited number of fixed criteria which are broadly
structured around the main sections of the legislation we regulate.  
 
Within the system there is an attribute that case officers should complete
where an information notice has been served.  This however is not a
mandatory field as a limited number of cases would involve an information
notice.  In order to process your request a search of the casework
management system was carried out by the request handler using this
attribute and with the time parameters you specified.  Validation was
carried out on the results checking each of those cases, meeting those
criteria, to confirm that an information notice had been served on those
cases.
 
Having considered the firm evidence you have now provided my finding is
now that you have not been provided with all the recorded information to
which you are entitled.  However, unfortunately we are not able to provide
you with the information you have requested. Section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes clear that a public authority (such as
the Information Commissioner’s Office – the ICO) is not obliged to comply
with an FOIA request if the authority estimates that the cost of complying
with the request would exceed the ‘appropriate limit'.  The ‘appropriate
limit’ for the ICO, as determined in the ‘Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004’ is £450.  We
have determined that £450 would equate to 18 hours work. 
 
In order to provide you with the recorded information that you have
requested would entail searching all the documents on each case, within
the time period you have specified, to categorically confirm whether an
information notice had been served.  Having conducted a preliminary search
there are over 4200 complaints about alleged breaches of FOIA alone.  On
the basis that it would take at least 5 minutes to search all the
documents (and it is clear that some would take longer), this alone would
take searching significantly over the cost of compliance without searching
other complaint types.
 
We have considered our duties under Section 16 and the provision of advice
and assistance.  We would advise you that we could perform a search using
the attribute available which is a search which could be performed with
the cost limits.  However, this has already been done and provided to you
in response to your request.  I can also confirm that there was an
information notice served on the case which has been brought to your
attention via twitter.
 
I hope this information provides you with some clarification, some
additional information and some assurance concerning recording information
of this nature. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of this review
you may make a section 50 complaint to the ICO as the regulator of FOIA. 

How to complain

Information on how to complain is available on the ICO website at:
[2][1]http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
By post: If your supporting evidence is in hard copy, you can fill in the
Word version of our 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
he form, and any supporting evidence will be sent to us by email.

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Powell
Information Governance Manager

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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. http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...