1st May 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0539294

Dear Mr McGartland

Request for Information
 
Thank you for your e-mail of 27 April 2014, in which you have asked the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to provide you with information
relating to Northumbria Police. 
 
Your request will be dealt with by the ICO’s Information Access Team in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 under the reference
number shown above.  We will therefore respond to your request promptly,
and no later than 27 May 2014, which is 20 working days from the day after
we received your request.
 
Should you wish to reply to this e-mail please be careful not to amend the
information in the ‘subject’ field. This will ensure that your reply is
added directly to your case.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Antonia Swann      Lead Information Governance Officer
 
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
T. 01625 545894  F. 01625 524510  [1]www.ico.gov.uk
 
 
 

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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.org.uk

References

Visible links
1. blocked::http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/

23rd May 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0539294

Dear Mr McGartland

Request for Information
 
Further to our acknowledgement of 1 May 2014 we are now in a position to
provide you with a response to your request for information dated 27 April
2014.
 
As you know we have dealt with your request in accordance with your ‘right
to know’ under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA),
which entitles you to be provided with a copy of any information ‘held’ by
a public authority, unless an appropriate exemption applies.
 
Request
 
In your e-mail you asked us to provide you with the following information;
 
1. All/any enforcement action take and or logged against Northumbria
Police between January 2012 and up until the date this request has been
answered.

2. Regards 1 above, any warnings or advice issued and or given to
Northumbria Police during above period.

3. Regards 1 and 2 above, please detail any enforcement action take and or
logged against Northumbria Police (including advice or warnings issues,
given) which related to my (Martin McGartland) cases, complaints and or
requests. (again, to cover above period).
 
Information Held
 
Firstly, we can confirm that we have not taken any form of formal
regulatory action against Northumbria Police between 1 January 2012 and
now. 
 
All forms of regulatory action we pursue, such as undertakings,
enforcement notices, civil monetary penalties and prosecutions, are
published on our website [1]here.  As this information is only available
for approximately two years, all previously published regulatory action no
longer held on our website can be accessed via The National Archives,
which has an internet memory section which shows a ‘snapshot’ of the ICO’s
website going back to 2006 (although these are not always complete). The
link is below:
 
[2]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...

Details of all the decision notices we have issued relating to complaints
submitted about Northumbria Police are published on our website, and the
search facility can be accessed [3]here.  This will enable you to look at
all the outcomes of the decision notices we have issued relating to
Northumbria Police since 1 January 2012.
 
We can also confirm that Northumbria Police were subject to a data
protection audit, and the executive summary of our findings which is dated
May 2013 can also be found on our website [4]here.
 
As far as non-published information is concerned, you will be aware from
previous requests to the ICO that we used to operate a system whereby a
Case Officer considering a complaint about a data controller or public
authority would, where necessary, refer a form titled ‘Referral of case
details – FOI/EIR/DPA Enforcement advice’ to our Enforcement Department
for consideration of whether formal regulatory action was considered
appropriate.  Copies of these forms relating to all complaints we had
considered about Northumbria Police up to and including 18 August 2012
(including your own) were provided to you under a previous request to the
ICO (our reference IRQ0461328), details of which are still available on
the ‘What Do They Know?’ website here:
 
[5]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...
 
However, since mid-2012 our system for monitoring data controllers and
public authorities compliance with the legislation we regulate,
particularly in respect of their ‘time for compliance’, has changed.  We
now run reports, generally every three months, of cases closed within a 6
month period which show public authorities that have incidents of repeated
delays. These are then considered in line with our procedures and a
decision is made as to whether formal monitoring is appropriate. Where it
is considered appropriate a list of the authorities being monitored is
published on our website. When the monitoring is concluded we subsequently
publish a press release confirming this.
 
Therefore ‘referrals’ to our Enforcement Department are no longer made,
and the forms you are already familiar with are no longer used.  In
addition, it is no longer the case that a dedicated ‘log’ is kept of those
data controllers and public authorities which continue to fail to comply
with information requests within the required deadlines.
 
Further details are available on our ‘Monitoring Compliance’ pages on our
website [6]here, which includes a link to an explanation of how we select
organisations for formal monitoring, as well as lists of those
organisations that have actually been selected for formal monitoring. 
We’ve also attached a copy of our “Standard Operating Procedure – FOI
Monitoring”, which you may find of interest.
 
 
 
 
Since the monitoring restarted in 2012, Northumbria Police has not
featured as a public authority that should be subjected to formal
monitoring. We do of course continue to monitor performance of all public
authorities in line with our procedures.
 
In addition, aside from routine correspondence which we have exchanged
with Northumbria Police in respect of individual complaints and concerns
raised with the ICO under the FOIA, Environmental Information Regulations
2004 and the Data Protection Act 1998 since 1 January 2012 (including your
own complaints), we have not considered it necessary to contact them with
the aim of providing them with any “warnings or advice” about their wider
compliance with the relevant legislation. 
 
To return to your original request, our response is as follows:
 
1. All/any enforcement action take and or logged against Northumbria
Police between January 2012 and up until the date this request has been
answered.

No enforcement action has been taken against Northumbria Police since 1
January 2012.  In addition, aside from the information we provided to you
on 26 September 2012 under our reference IRQ0461328 no other action has
been logged against Northumbria Police since then.

2. Regards 1 above, any warnings or advice issued and or given to
Northumbria Police during above period.

Aside from routine correspondence we have exchanged with Northumbria
Police about complaints and concerns raised with the ICO since 1 January
2012, no “warnings or advice” have been issued.

3. Regards 1 and 2 above, please detail any enforcement action take and or
logged against Northumbria Police (including advice or warnings issues,
given) which related to my (Martin McGartland) cases, complaints and or
requests. (again, to cover above period).
 
Please see above.
 
Review Procedure
 
We hope this provides you with the information you require.  However, if
you are dissatisfied with this response 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 [7][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 our Customer Contact Team at the address given or visit our website if
you wish to report a concern under either the Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations.
 
A copy of our review procedure can be accessed from our website [8]here.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Antonia Swann      Lead Information Governance Officer
 
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
T. 01625 545894  F. 01625 524510  [9]www.ico.org.uk
 
 
 
 

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.org.uk

References

Visible links
1. http://ico.org.uk/enforcement
2. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.u...
3. http://search.ico.org.uk/ico/search/deci...
4. http://ico.org.uk/~/media/documents/libr...
5. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/h...
6. http://ico.org.uk/what_we_cover/monitori...
7. mailto:[email address]
8. http://www.ico.org.uk/about_us/~/media/d...
9. http://www.ico.org.uk/