Information Tribunal Decison Delays
Dear HM Courts and Tribunals Service,
For the period 01/01/2018 to the present, please provide with regard to Information Tribunals:
1. the date of tribunal hearings
2. the reference for the hearing
3. the date of the decisions being issued
4. the name of the Judge (Judges)
5. whether the Appeal was upheld
6. the reasons for any delays, if these did in fact occur
7. any policy, guidance, or assistance issued to Judges that relates to the issuance of decisions in a timely fashion.
I understand Judges aim to give a decision out within four weeks but it is also dependent on the judges workloads.
Yours faithfully,
Mr P Swift
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Dear Mr P Swift,
Please see attached document for your perusal.
Thank you,
Rajeev Gandhi
Knowledge Information Liason Officer
GRC & GRP Tribunals | PO Box 9300 | Leicester | LE1 8DJ
[1]www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/first-tier-tribunal-general-regulatory-chamber
[2]Here is how HMCTS uses personal data about you
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Dear HM Courts and Tribunals Service,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of HM Courts and Tribunals Service's handling of my FOI request 'Information Tribunal Decison Delays'.
i note 'the appropriate limit for central government it is set at £600. This represents the
estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the
department holds the information.' you do not appear to have spent 3.5 days determining whether the department holds the information. Please explain what has bene done.
wat period could be reduced and fit the criteria. You do not say. why not?
Please apply from 01/01/2020
Why can you not guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit, or that other exemptions will not apply. You must have some idea
when responding to the IR please advise:
the software you use for case management
the date fields held for search.management information / service levels etc
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...
Yours faithfully,
Mr P Swift
J Roberts left an annotation ()
Improve access to court judgments, MPs tell HMCTS
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/improv...
Dear GRC,
I withdraw the Internal review.
The request has, to an extent, been addressed at: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Mr P Swift
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[1]Ministry of Justice Disclosure & Library Team
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Mr P Swift [3][HMCTS request email]
[2][FOI #896049 email] 02 November 2022
Dear Mr P Swift
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Outcome of Internal Review – 221010028
Thank you for your Internal Review request dated 10^th October regarding FOI
request 220910005 in which you asked for the following information from the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ):
Dear HM Courts and Tribunals Service, For the period 01/01/2018 to the
present, please provide with regard to Information Tribunals: 1. the date
of tribunal hearings 2. the reference for the hearing 3. the date of the
decisions being issued 4. the name of the Judge (Judges) 5. whether the
Appeal was upheld 6. the reasons for any delays, if these did in fact
occur 7. any policy, guidance, or assistance issued to Judges that relates
to the issuance of decisions in a timely fashion. I understand Judges aim
to give a decision out within four weeks but it is also dependent on the
judges workloads.
The purpose of an Internal Review is to assess how your FOI request was
handled in the first instance and to determine whether the original
decision given to you was correct. This is an independent review: I was
not involved in the original decision.
The response to your original request was unable to confirm if the MoJ
holds the information that you requested due to the cost limit. Section
12(2) of the FOIA means a public authority is not obliged to comply with a
request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed
the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government it is
set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5
working days determining whether the department holds the information.
After careful consideration I have concluded that this response was
compliant with the requirements of the FOIA.
Statutory deadline
The statutory deadline for your request was 11^th October and the response
was provided on 10^th October. The response was therefore compliant with
the timeliness requirements of the FOIA.
Outcome
Further to the questions raised in your review request, we do not spend
the 3.5 days determining if the department holds the information. We run
relevant reports, in this case to see how many Information Rights cases we
have received from 2018 to date, which helps inform the calculations which
show the request as it currently stands would exceed the cost limit.
I can confirm that the use of section 12 (2) exemption was applied
correctly in this case as during the time period requested, we had almost
2,000 Information Rights cases. It would have taken weeks to collate all
the data you requested and therefore your request as it currently stands,
is over the £600 cost limit set for central government.
Within our response I note that there is an error in the wording provided
to you, whereby we state, ‘In this instance to determine if all of the
information requested is held we would be required to describe the work
required’. I acknowledge that this is an administrative error, and that we
should have described the work required to confirm we hold the information
requested. This has been done above and I apologise for this error within
our original response.
In our response, we advised you how you could reduce the scope of your
request by reducing the volume of data requested. This could have been
made clearer to advise that you could refine your request by asking for a
shorter time period or reduce the amount of data analysis requested. I
agree with this general refinement advice although believe we should have
provided specific advice, as I have now done above.
I note you have asked for the request to be applied from 01/01/2020 and
for the software used or date fields held. These questions have been
logged as a new request, with the reference number FOI 221010062. We would
not speculate whether a new request would fall within the FOIA cost limit
or under other exemption as each FOI request must be looked at
independently and on its own merits.
In conclusion I am satisfied that the response you received on 10^th
October was correct, although I believe our description of the work
required and our refinement advice could have been more helpful if it was
more specific, and for that, I apologise.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to apply to
the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The Commissioner is an
independent regulator who has the power to direct us to respond to your
request differently, if she considers that we have handled it incorrectly.
You can contact the ICO at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office online portal
[4]https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-...
Postal address
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely
Knowledge and Information Liaison Officer
NBC Regional Support Unit
HMCTS
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This e-mail and any attachments is intended only for the attention of the
addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Internet e-mail is not a
secure medium. Any reply to this message could be intercepted and read by
someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send
material in response to this message by e-mail. This e-mail (whether you
are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained
by the Ministry of Justice. Monitoring / blocking software may be used,
and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to
ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their
contents.
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[FOI #896049 email]
3. mailto:[HMCTS request email]
4. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/foi-...
Dear HM Courts and Tribunals Service,
Thank you - but please see mine prior to yours.
Yours faithfully,
Mr P Swift
Dear Mr Swift,
Thank you for your email.
Please can you confirm if your email is in response to your internal review?
Kind regards,
Disclosure and MoJ Library Team
Information Services Division, Security and Information Governance Group (SIG)
Follow us on Twitter @MoJGovUK
Dear Mr Swift,
Thank you for your response.
Please can you clarify what your previous email was in relation to?
Kind regards,
Disclosure and MoJ Library Team
Information Services Division, Security and Information Governance Group (SIG)
Follow us on Twitter @MoJGovUK
[1]Ministry of Justice Disclosure Team
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Mr P Swift
[2][FOI #896049 email]
[3][HMCTS request email]
18th November 2022
Dear Mr Swift,
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request – 221010062
Thank you for your request dated 10^th October in which you asked for the
following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ):
Dear HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Please pass this on to the person
who conducts Freedom of Information reviews. when responding to the IR
please advise: the software you use for case management the date fields
held for search.management information / service levels etc
Your request has been handled under the FOIA.
I can confirm that the MoJ holds the information that you have requested,
and I have provided it below.
The software we use for case management is a database called GLiMR. We
search by case reference or by contact name. When running reports we’re
able to search by date range and jurisdiction. The database holds the full
record of cases so the date fields are not limited; whenever the
jurisdiction went live is the date we’ll be able to search from.
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request
an internal review by responding in writing to one of the addresses below
within two months of the date of this response.
[4][HMCTS request email]
Disclosure Team, Ministry of Justice
You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
to investigate any aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the
ICO is likely to expect internal complaints procedures to have been
exhausted before beginning their investigation.
Yours sincerely,
Knowledge and Information Liaison Officer
NBC Regional Support Unit
HMCTS
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
This e-mail and any attachments is intended only for the attention of the
addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying is not
permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail. Internet e-mail is not a
secure medium. Any reply to this message could be intercepted and read by
someone else. Please bear that in mind when deciding whether to send
material in response to this message by e-mail. This e-mail (whether you
are the sender or the recipient) may be monitored, recorded and retained
by the Ministry of Justice. Monitoring / blocking software may be used,
and e-mail content may be read at any time. You have a responsibility to
ensure laws are not broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their
contents.
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[FOI #896049 email]
3. mailto:[HMCTS request email]
4. mailto:[HMCTS request email]
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Mr P Swift left an annotation ()
Your request has been handled under the FOIA.
I am unable to confirm if the MoJ holds the information you have requested within the cost
limit. Section 12(2) of the FOIA means a public authority is not obliged to comply with a
request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate
limit. The appropriate limit for central government it is set at £600. This represents the
estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the
department holds the information.
In this instance to determine if all of the information requested is held we would be required
to describe the work required, which would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we
are not obliged to comply with your request.
Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we may be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider; the scope of the request can
be narrowed. i.e. reducing the volume of the request.
Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within
the FOIA cost limit, or that other exemptions will not apply.
For guidance on how to structure successful requests please refer to the ICO website on the
following link: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/off...
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/...
Appeal Rights
If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by
responding in writing to one of the addresses below within two months of the date of this
response.
data.access@justice.gov.uk
Disclosure Team, Ministry of Justice
You do have the right to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to investigate any
aspect of your complaint. However, please note that the ICO is likely to expect internal
complaints procedures to have been exhausted before beginning their investigation.