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Write: The House of Lords Appointments Commission
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Thank you.

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Dear Mr. Irving,

In an email message to the House of Lords Information Office dated 6th
February 2009 you requested, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
('the Act'), "electronic copies of any documents produced by PICT
discussing or evaluating the possible deployment of electronic
petitioning systems in Parliament".

The subject of electronic petitioning has been considered by the House
of Commons Procedure Committee
(http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...
/13602.htm), but not in the House of Lords, and the House of Lords does
not hold any such information.

I should explain that 'PICT' (the Parliamentary Information and
Communications Technology service) is a joint department established
under section 1 of the Parliament (Joint Departments) Act 2007 by the
Corporate Officer of the House of Commons and the Corporate Officer of
the House of Lords. Such a joint department is not a body corporate,
and therefore has no legal identity separate from that of the two
Corporate Officers (each of whom is, by virtue of the Parliamentary
Corporations Act 1992, a corporation sole). But it is the House of
Lords and the House of Commons which are, under section 3(1) of, and
Schedule 1 to, the Act, public authorities and not the Corporate
Officers.

Section 1(1)(b) of the Act applies only to information which is held by
the public authority to which the request is made, and section 3(2)(a)
provides that information is held by a public authority for the purposes
of the Act if it is held by the authority otherwise than on behalf of
another person. In the present case, I am advised that the information
you have requested, although stored electronically on systems operated
by 'PICT', is information generated by and for the purposes of the House
of Commons alone. It is not information to which the House of Lords
itself even has access.

Accordingly, the House of Lords itself does not physically hold the
information in question, and - to the extent that the House could be
said to hold the information jointly with the House of Commons simply
because its Corporate Officer manages PICT jointly with the Corporate
Officer of the House of Commons - it does so notionally only on behalf
of the House of Commons. So the information you seek is not information
which, in terms of section 3(2)(a), is 'held' by this House for the
purposes of the Act.

We would normally refer your request to the House of Commons at this
point but we are aware that you have already made a request to that
House.
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/on...)

You may, if dissatisfied with the House of Lords treatment of your
request for information, ask the House of Lords to conduct an internal
review. Requests for an internal review should be addressed to
[email address] or to the Freedom of Information Officer, House
of Lords, London SW1A 0PW. Arrangements would then be made for someone
who has not been involved in dealing with your request to conduct an
internal review within 20 working days.

If, following such a review, you remained dissatisfied with the House's
treatment of your request for information, you may then take your
complaint to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire SK6 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Frances Grey
Freedom of Information Officer
House of Lords
020 7219 0100

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