Internal correspondence regarding FoI request of July 6

The request was partially successful.

Dear Croydon Borough Council,

Last month, on July 6, I filed an information request regarding the conduct of the council's appointments committee on July 1.

Despite the requirements of the law, as of today, I have received no response from the council to this enquiry. I have therefore lodged a formal complaint and requested an internal review.

Further and separately to this, I would like sight of ALL internal correspondence at Croydon Council arising from my FoI request of July 6.

The text of the July 6 request is as follows:

Dear Croydon Borough Council,

Can you please advise on which date, and how, notice was given of
the appointments committee which met on Tuesday, July 1, 2014?

Can you produce a copy of the published agenda which shows that the
appointment of Nathan Elvery as chief executive officer was
included as an item on that meeting's agenda?

The council website's notice of this meeting includes no reference
to the Elvery appointment. Please explain why this was ommitted.

Can you tell me which councillors attended the appointments
sub-committee on July 1?

I look forward to a prompt response within the requirements of the law,

Yours faithfully,

S Downes

Information, Croydon Borough Council

 

Dear Mr S Downes

 

Thank you for your recent request.

 

Please note that the Council is experiencing problems with the computer
system we use for such requests.  Unfortunately, you may receive another
acknowledgement which is automated directly from that system when the
issue has been resolved.  Please accept our apologies for any
inconvenience this may cause.

 

Your request is being considered and you will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days, subject to the application of
any exemptions. Where consideration is being given to exemptions the 20
working day timescale may be extended to a period considered reasonable
depending on the nature and circumstances of your request. In such cases
you will be notified and, where possible, a revised time-scale will be
indicated. In all cases we shall attempt to deal with your request at the
earliest opportunity.

 

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of
the information requested where the request exceeds the statutory limit or
where disbursements exceed £450. In such cases you will be informed in
writing and your request will be suspended until we receive payment from
you or your request is modified and/or reduced.

 

Your request may require either full or partial transfer to another public
authority. You will be informed if your request is transferred.

 

If we are unable to provide you with the information requested we will
notify you of this together with the reason(s) why and details of how you
may appeal (if appropriate).

 

Please note that the directorate team may contact you for further
information where we believe that the request is not significantly clear
for us to respond fully.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Information Team

Croydon Council

 

Information in relation to the London Borough of Croydon is available at
[1]http://www.croydonobservatory.org/. Also responses to previous Freedom
of Information requests can also be found on the following link
[2]https://croydondata.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

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Derby, James, Croydon Borough Council

Dear Mr Downes

 

I write regarding your email of 06 August 2014; you advised you issued a
FOI request to the Council on 06 July 2014 and that as at 06 August 2014,
you had not received a response from the Council. I am now dealing with
your complaint under the internal review process.

 

As you may be aware, the Information Commissioner’s Office recommends that
internal reviews are undertaken within 20 working days following receipt
of the request, in other words, by 04 September 2014. I will be making
enquiries from relevant officers of the Council about your FOI request
which will allow my consideration of your complaint. I will revert to you
once the investigation is completed and has been considered in relation to
the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

Regards

 

 

James Derby

Corporate Solicitor

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Derby, James, Croydon Borough Council

Dear Mr Downes

 

I write further to my email of 12 August 2014 regarding your complaint
about a Freedom of Information request you sent to the Council on 06 July
2014. You advised that as at 06 August 2014 you had not received a
substantive response to your FOI request. The Council is dealing with your
complaint under its internal review process and I have now completed the
internal review.  

 

In undertaking this internal review, I have examined your FOI request
contained in your email of 06 July 2014. I have also examined the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and relevant
guidance notes and decision notices from the Information Commissioner’s
Office (ICO) and the First Tier Tribunal. Also, in the course of
conducting this internal review, I discussed with relevant officers in the
Council’s FOI team regarding processing your request.  I have then set out
my decision as to whether or not the Council complied with its obligations
under the FOIA.

 

Section 1 of the FOIA provides a general right of access to information
held by public authorities. Under the legislation, the public authority is
expected to conduct a search into its records (electronic and manual) to
determine if the information requested is held by the public authority.
Where the information is held, there should be a disclosure to the
requestor subject to withholding any of such information pursuant to any
of the 23 (twenty three) absolute or qualified exemptions available under
the FOIA. The qualified exemptions require the public authority to apply
the public interest test before making a decision regarding disclosing or
withholding the information.

 

The issue for consideration in this internal review is whether the Council
complied with its obligation under Section 10 of the FOIA i.e. provided
the information to you within 20 working days following date of receipt of
your FOI request.

 

Section 10 (1) of the FOIA provides that a public authority must provide
information to a requestor not later than the twentieth working day
following the date of receipt of the request. As mentioned above your FOI
request was received by the Council on 06 July 2014. In line with the
provisions of the FOI Act, the twentieth working day for which a response
is due to you was 01 August 2014. As mentioned in your email of 06 August
29014 you had not received a response to your FOI request from the
Council. In view of this I am of the view that the Council failed to meet
its obligation under Section 10 (1) of the FOIA.

 

Following my discussions with the Council’s FOI team, I understand the
delay in responding to your FOI request was mainly due to some problems
with the Council’s IT (CRM) system used for managing FOI requests across
the Council. I understand the system populated a wrong reference number to
your FOI request and it became difficult to coordinate responses from
relevant service areas. I am advised the problem has now been rectified
and you were provided with a substantive response to your FOI request on
28 August. Kindly accept our apologies for any inconvenience the delay may
have caused to you.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with this decision, you may refer the matter to
the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

James Derby

Corporate Solicitor

Legal & Democratic Services

London Borough of Croydon

4G Bernard Weatherill House

8 Mint Walk

Croydon

CR0 1EA

Tel: 020 8760 5768 Ext. 61359

Fax: 020 8760 5679

 

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Information, Croydon Borough Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Downes

Please find attached the Council’s response to your Freedom of Information Request regarding all internal correspondence at Croydon Council arising from your previous FoI request of July 6th.

Yours Sincerely

Ciaran Ward
Senior Information Co-ordinator
Business Support Service
Chief Executives Department

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