Pt2 Timings of transparency in Public Service organisations

M Hands made this Freedom of Information request to Department for Culture, Media and Sport Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was refused by Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Dear Department for Culture, Media and Sport,

NEW REQUEST 26/04/2023

DCMS
Data recorded on transparency in Public Service organisations requests that have gone to ICO after requester applied to DCMS but was not satisfied with how the request was answered

ICO -
For any reason
Delays
Cost
Challenges to DCMS initial reply

From 2021 to 2023

Quote
The Freedom of Information Act says:

A public authority must comply with section 1(1) promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt.

In our opinion, what matters most here is that the law says authorities must respond promptly.

End quote

Quote
FOI officers often have to do a lot of hard work to answer requests, and this is hidden from the public. We think it would help everyone to have more of that complexity visible.
End quote

Quote
Guidance from the Commissioner suggests extensions beyond 40 working days may be acceptable in exceptional cases such as where a body is under extreme pressure due to a major incident or where a public interest test involves “exceptional levels of complexity”.

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act does not allow such a public interest extension

End quote

Transparency covers Environmental Information
Quote
Who can make an EIR request? #
Anyone can make a request for environmental information. You do not need to give a reason for your request or demonstrate any particular interest in the information.

End quote

Although we should KEEP our request focused

Quote
You should not include:

arguments about your cause
statements that could defame or insult others
questions or requests for comment rather than for specific information
The Freedom of Information process does not allow for general correspondence, background details or the rights and wrongs of a situation. It simply gives you the right to ask for documents or data that the authority holds.

End quote

So what we are asking is
DCMS
Data recorded on transparency in Public Service organisations requests that have gone to ICO after requester applied to DCMS but was not satisfied with how the request was answered

ICO -
For any reason
Delays
Cost
Challenges to DCMS initial reply

From 2021 to 2023

Please provide list with dates and subject matter DCMS to ICO

Yours faithfully,

M Hands

FOI Team, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

1 Attachment

Our Ref: FOI2023/05018

Please see the attached letter from the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport.

Kind regards,

Ministerial Support Team

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Dear FOI Team,

We are going to seek guidance so we can get the information without cost excess to your department

Yours sincerely,

M Hands

Dear FOI Team,

To keep it within cost

Quote

In this instance, we have interpreted your request to all correspondence between DCMS
and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regarding “transparency in Public Service
organisations requests that have gone to ICO after requester applied to DCMS but was not
satisfied with how the request was answered”. We have interpreted this as relating to
Freedom of Information requests (and their internal reviews), and Subject Access requests.
We regret that we are unable to respond to your request because it exceeds the cost limit
set out by the Act. Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse
requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate
limit, which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one
person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the department holds the
information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
We consider your request would be over the statutory limit because of the time and
resources required to obtain the requested information. As noted in our responses with
regards to Freedom of Information requests or Subject Access requests, individuals have
the right to ask the ICO to investigate any aspect of their complaint. Therefore, over this
period, there have been numerous occasions in which such complaints have taken place
(even if they result in the ICO upholding the department's decision). In order to investigate
a complaint sufficiently, the ICO will be required to engage with the relevant department (in
this case DCMS), and therefore there are communications from both sides to resolve the
complaint effectively. The volume of information held by the department is therefore large,
and also distributed within teams and systems. There will also be communications with the
ICO on unrelated matters to your request; as the ICO was previously sponsored by the
former Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport prior to the machinery of
government changes when the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
became the sponsor department. This information will need to be sifted to identify if any of
this information could be considered in-scope of your request. Additionally, the work
required to support this request is then multiplied as your request covers a timeframe of 3
years.
In order that you can submit a request that does not breach the cost limit set, you may like
to limit your request. We would recommend you specify particular Freedom of Information or
Subject Access requests for which you wish to request correspondence. You may wish to
specify exactly what information you require, for example email correspondence only. You
may wish to reduce the timeframe of your request significantly.

End quote

Please consider our request
requests that have gone to ICO after requester applied to DCMS but was not
satisfied with how the request was answered”. as relating to
Freedom of Information requests (and their internal reviews), and NOT subject access requests

Please consider our requests working back from the date of request within the cost limit

Eg 2023 working back as far as you are able (based on the information received we can submit new requests)

Yours sincerely,

M Hands

FOI Team, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

1 Attachment

Our Ref: FOI2023/06117

Please see the attached letter from the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport.

Kind regards,

Ministerial Support Team

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Dear FOI Team,

whilst we appreciate your interest in providing assistance and guidance where able
whilst you have acknowledged our number of recent requests as 5 (correct us if that is not right)

we do object to the wording in your response as being something we aspire not to be

and request guidance where it is necessary to enable transparency

you said
quote
In order to make a request that is not considered vexatious, we would recommend you
submit one request with a narrow scope. We would recommend that your request refines
the request to particular FOI complaints (noting that the ICO publishes information regarding
their investigations through Decision Notices, found on their website). For example, you may
wish to specify particular documents you are interested in; and specify a short timeframe for
your request.

end quote

we shall check the interested documents particularly and specify a short timeframe

with thanks

Yours sincerely,

M Hands