Dear Home Office,

What reports does the Home Office hold on child sex abuse?

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

Dear FOI Responses,

I notice that you waited the full 28 days to even ask for clarification, in line with the Home Office tactic of delaying child abuse foi requests as long as possible.
It would seem bizarre that you have not already searched for all child abuse reports and have a list of all relevant documents for iicsa.
Have you provided a list of what documents you hold on child sexual abuse to IICSA? Please provide me with a copy of this list of relevant documents.
In the unlikely event that the Home Office, which provided much of the Secretariat to IICSA, (perhaps you could confirm who and how many?) have not made a list of documents that would be helpful for IICSA, then please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual absue reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" and date.
If child sexual abuse is searched for how many records will that show up?
I had no idea that the Home Office had so many reports that would take so long to list.
.

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

Dear Home Office,
I notice that you waited the full 28 days to even ask for clarification, which is against the ICO guidelines, in line with the Home Office tactic of delaying child abuse foi requests as long as possible.
It would seem bizarre that you have not already searched for all child abuse reports and have a list of all relevant documents for iicsa.
Have you provided a list of what documents you hold on child sexual abuse to IICSA? Please provide me with a copy of this list of relevant documents.
In the unlikely event that the Home Office, which provided much of the Secretariat to IICSA, (perhaps you could confirm who and how many?) have not made a list of documents that would be helpful for IICSA, then please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual absue reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" and date.
If child sexual abuse is searched for how many records will that show up?
I had no idea that the Home Office had so many reports that would take so long to list.

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

Dear FOI Responses,

I note your response.
1. Please tell me the legally qualified person that actually decided on the s36 response to this request.
Please tell me the information headings in the database of the information that the Home office sent to the IICSA inquiry.
Please tell me how many documents were sent, when they were sent and how many pages each document was.
Please can you tell me if copies are made and if the originals were sent.

2. ..the Home Office, which provided much of the Secretariat to IICSA, (perhaps you
could confirm who and how many?

Various members of the Home Office were seconded to the inquiry secretariat.
Whose budget does that money come from?
Do those people have a right or understanding that they may work for the Home Office after their stint at IICSA?
How many peoples jobs were replaced after home office employees were seconded to the Home Office?

3. ..please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual abuse reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " and date.
Answer
In response to part 3 of your request, the Home Office holds information on a number of sites and across
a variety of paper and digital sources, including its corporate filing systems. In our letter to you dated 7 February 2018, in response to your request 46858, we advised you that providing further information about the type of report you wish to view alongside a specific date period might help to bring your request under the cost limit. We gave inspectorate, academic, and non - governmental organisations (NGO) as examples of
the types of bodies which might produce reports . To clarify, the Home Office’s files are not
categorised by – and cannot be searched via – report type.
I quoted "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " in the question, to which the response gave those 3 again as examples, what other examples might there be?

In line with advice and assistance of S16 of the FOI Act, please could you give tell me why Home Office files cannot be searched by Report type - how can they be searched and what can they be searched by? Please give more information on what corporate filing systems are. Please clarify what inspectorates you mean, and what is classified as academic report and give an example. Please list all the academic reports on child abuse since 2000 that Home Office hold
Can you clarify if there are any other subdivisions or classes other
than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" as I previously asked.

4.In response to part 4 of your request, I can confirm that the Home Office does not hold the
information you requested. The Home Office does not have a record of the number of files that would be returned by a search for the term “child sexual abuse” and, as you will be
aware, is not obliged to create new information to respond to FOI requests. Furthermore,
any such figure would be likely to change on an almost continuous basis, due to the
creation of new documents and files during the course of a working day ; this search would
also capture any file containing this term, not only reports about child sexual abuse

Has the Home office never searched for the term child sexual abuse in its records? This would be astonishing if true.

Please could you explain how you would go about finding child sexual abuse reports in for example the academic database.

5. How did the Home Office decide what documents to send to IICSA? How did the Home Office find them and choose them?
How is the Home Office sure that all the relevant documents have been sent?

6. What is the earliest date of Home office files that it holds and when do Home office files get archived? Where do those archived documents go?

7. Please could you proved the titles of reports about child sexual abuse that fall under the "academic" category

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

Dear Home Office,

Dear FOI Responses,

I note your response.
1. Please tell me the legally qualified person that actually decided on the s36 response to this request.
Please tell me the information headings in the database of the information that the Home office sent to the IICSA inquiry.
Please tell me how many documents were sent, when they were sent and how many pages each document was.
Please can you tell me if copies are made and if the originals were sent.

2. ..the Home Office, which provided much of the Secretariat to IICSA, (perhaps you
could confirm who and how many?

Various members of the Home Office were seconded to the inquiry secretariat.
Whose budget does that money come from?
Do those people have a right or understanding that they may work for the Home Office after their stint at IICSA?
How many peoples jobs were replaced after home office employees were seconded to the Home Office?

3. ..please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual abuse reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " and date.
Answer
In response to part 3 of your request, the Home Office holds information on a number of sites and across
a variety of paper and digital sources, including its corporate filing systems. In our letter to you dated 7 February 2018, in response to your request 46858, we advised you that providing further information about the type of report you wish to view alongside a specific date period might help to bring your request under the cost limit. We gave inspectorate, academic, and non - governmental organisations (NGO) as examples of
the types of bodies which might produce reports . To clarify, the Home Office’s files are not
categorised by – and cannot be searched via – report type.
I quoted "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " in the question, to which the response gave those 3 again as examples, what other examples might there be?

In line with advice and assistance of S16 of the FOI Act, please could you give tell me why Home Office files cannot be searched by Report type - how can they be searched and what can they be searched by? Please give more information on what corporate filing systems are. Please clarify what inspectorates you mean, and what is classified as academic report and give an example. Please list all the academic reports on child abuse since 2000 that Home Office hold
Can you clarify if there are any other subdivisions or classes other
than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" as I previously asked.

4.In response to part 4 of your request, I can confirm that the Home Office does not hold the
information you requested. The Home Office does not have a record of the number of files that would be returned by a search for the term “child sexual abuse” and, as you will be
aware, is not obliged to create new information to respond to FOI requests. Furthermore,
any such figure would be likely to change on an almost continuous basis, due to the
creation of new documents and files during the course of a working day ; this search would
also capture any file containing this term, not only reports about child sexual abuse

Has the Home office never searched for the term child sexual abuse in its records? This would be astonishing if true.

Please could you explain how you would go about finding child sexual abuse reports in for example the academic database.

5. How did the Home Office decide what documents to send to IICSA? How did the Home Office find them and choose them?
How is the Home Office sure that all the relevant documents have been sent?

6. What is the earliest date of Home office files that it holds and when do Home office files get archived? Where do those archived documents go?

7. Please could you proved the titles of reports about child sexual abuse that fall under the "academic" category

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Reports on child sexual abuse'.

I have considerably refined and changed my request, only to have it absurdly described as "repeat or vexatious"
I believe this is part of the de facto policy of the Home Office where child sexual abuse is concerned to delay and deny requests as much as possible due to past Home Office Involvement in child abuse.
I will provide further reasons in due course

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

Dear FOI Requests,

Further to my request for an internal review, i enclose further details and evidence of what I request to be reviewed.

You answered
"We have considered the rest of your request and we consider that it is either vexatious
(section 14(1)) or a repeated request (section 14(2)) or both . Section 14(1) of the FOI Act
provides that the Home Office is not obliged to comply with a request for information which it considers to be vexatious.
You stated "We have reached this decision because of the unreasonable
burden which responding would impose on the department and because
in our view the request appears to display unreasonable persistence and evidence of
a scattergun approach and frequent or overlapping requests."

However this was a considerably refined the response in line with your previous answer from "What reports does the Home Office hold on child sex abuse?" I have also asked for more advice and assistance as to how to refine it further.
However the Home Office, in line with it seems a de facto policy to delay and deny release of information as much as possible tries to label my refinement as vexatious whilst refusing to help.
I dont know whether you have become confused by my listing the previous request and answer with the new questions.
So I have omitted the parts that might have confused you.

[Part 1 was a request for metadata, a substantial refinement]

1. Please tell me the information headings in the database of the information that the Home office sent to the IICSA inquiry.
Please tell me how many documents were sent, when they were sent and how many pages each document was.
Please can you tell me if copies are made and if the originals were sent.

Part 2 NEW questions were not addressed

2. Various members of the Home Office were seconded to the inquiry secretariat.
Whose budget does that money come from?
Do those people have a right or understanding that they may work for the Home Office after their stint at IICSA?
How many peoples jobs were replaced after home office employees were seconded to the Home Office?

Part 3 was a new request for advice and assistance so that i could refine my request

3. ..please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual abuse reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " and date.

In line with advice and assistance of S16 of the FOI Act, please could you give tell me why Home Office files cannot be searched by Report type - how can they be searched and what can they be searched by? Please give more information on what corporate filing systems are. Please clarify what inspectorates you mean, and what is classified as academic report and give an example. Please list all the academic reports on child abuse since 2000 that Home Office hold
Can you clarify if there are any other subdivisions or classes other
than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" as I previously asked.

Part 4 was a New question and request for assistance so i could refine further

4.Has the Home office never searched for the term child sexual abuse in its records? This would be astonishing if true.

Please could you explain how you would go about finding child sexual abuse reports in for example the academic database.

Part 5 was New question

5. How did the Home Office decide what documents to send to IICSA? How did the Home Office find them and choose them?
How is the Home Office sure that all the relevant documents have been sent?

Part 6 was a New question

6. What is the earliest date of Home office files that it holds and when do Home office files get archived? Where do those archived documents go?

New question asking only for metadata of only one category of 3 you mentioned

7. [was a refinement /new question] Please could you provide the titles of reports about child sexual abuse that fall under the "academic" category

It is clearly not a vexatious question nor repeated and therefore i request that the Home Office take their duties seriously under the FOI Act and stop the apparent policy of the Home Office to delay and deny information on child sexual abuse.

Yours sincerely,

Cathy Fox

Dear Home Office,

Thankyou for response. I dispute your findings of vexatious, which is merely a device not to answer legitimate FOI. I took some of that advice and you still refused to answer questions.

However as you took over the legal time to answer the internal review, it is way over the time for answering the questions anyway

[Part 1 was a request for metadata, a substantial refinement]

1. Please tell me the information headings in the database of the information that the Home office sent to the IICSA inquiry.
Please tell me how many documents were sent, when they were sent and how many pages each document was.
Please can you tell me if copies are made and if the originals were sent.

Part 2 NEW questions were not addressed

2. Various members of the Home Office were seconded to the inquiry secretariat.
Whose budget does that money come from?
Do those people have a right or understanding that they may work for the Home Office after their stint at IICSA?
How many peoples jobs were replaced after home office employees were seconded to the Home Office?

Part 3 was a new request for advice and assistance so that i could refine my request

3. ..please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual abuse reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " and date.

In line with advice and assistance of S16 of the FOI Act, please could you give tell me why Home Office files cannot be searched by Report type - how can they be searched and what can they be searched by? Please give more information on what corporate filing systems are. Please clarify what inspectorates you mean, and what is classified as academic report and give an example. Please list all the academic reports on child abuse since 2000 that Home Office hold
Can you clarify if there are any other subdivisions or classes other
than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" as I previously asked.

Part 4 was a New question and request for assistance so i could refine further

4.Has the Home office never searched for the term child sexual abuse in its records? This would be astonishing if true.

Please could you explain how you would go about finding child sexual abuse reports in for example the academic database.

Part 5 was New question

5. How did the Home Office decide what documents to send to IICSA? How did the Home Office find them and choose them?
How is the Home Office sure that all the relevant documents have been sent?

Part 6 was a New question

6. What is the earliest date of Home office files that it holds and when do Home office files get archived? Where do those archived documents go?

New question asking only for metadata of only one category of 3 you mentioned

7. [was a refinement /new question] Please could you provide the titles of reports about child sexual abuse that fall under the "academic" category

It is clearly not a vexatious question nor repeated and therefore i request that the Home Office take their duties seriously under the FOI Act and stop the apparent policy of the Home Office to delay and deny information on child sexual abuse.

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox

Dear Home Office,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Reports on chidl sexual abuse'.

The reply the Home office just gave advised me to contact the ICO. However the next step is an internal review. You have not considered my reasons for saying that it is not vexatious as you ruled it out of time .
Hence the same request and now I ask you to internally review considering the following points.

You answered
"We have considered the rest of your request and we consider that it is either vexatious
(section 14(1)) or a repeated request (section 14(2)) or both . Section 14(1) of the FOI Act
provides that the Home Office is not obliged to comply with a request for information which it considers to be vexatious.
You stated "We have reached this decision because of the unreasonable
burden which responding would impose on the department and because
in our view the request appears to display unreasonable persistence and evidence of
a scattergun approach and frequent or overlapping requests."

However this was a considerably refined the response in line with your previous answer from "What reports does the Home Office hold on child sex abuse?" I have also asked for more advice and assistance as to how to refine it further.
However the Home Office, in line with it seems a de facto policy to delay and deny release of information as much as possible tries to label my refinement as vexatious whilst refusing to help.
I dont know whether you have become confused by my listing the previous request and answer with the new questions.
So I have omitted the parts that might have confused you.

[Part 1 was a request for metadata, a substantial refinement]

1. Please tell me the information headings in the database of the information that the Home office sent to the IICSA inquiry.
Please tell me how many documents were sent, when they were sent and how many pages each document was.
Please can you tell me if copies are made and if the originals were sent.

Part 2 NEW questions were not addressed

2. Various members of the Home Office were seconded to the inquiry secretariat.
Whose budget does that money come from?
Do those people have a right or understanding that they may work for the Home Office after their stint at IICSA?
How many peoples jobs were replaced after home office employees were seconded to the Home Office?

Part 3 was a new request for advice and assistance so that i could refine my request

3. ..please could you first confirm what databases you may have which may contain child sexual abuse reports and if there are any other subdivisions or classes other than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports " and date.

In line with advice and assistance of S16 of the FOI Act, please could you give tell me why Home Office files cannot be searched by Report type - how can they be searched and what can they be searched by? Please give more information on what corporate filing systems are. Please clarify what inspectorates you mean, and what is classified as academic report and give an example. Please list all the academic reports on child abuse since 2000 that Home Office hold
Can you clarify if there are any other subdivisions or classes other
than "inspectorate, academic, or named NGO reports" as I previously asked.

Part 4 was a New question and request for assistance so i could refine further

4.Has the Home office never searched for the term child sexual abuse in its records? This would be astonishing if true.

Please could you explain how you would go about finding child sexual abuse reports in for example the academic database.

Part 5 was New question

5. How did the Home Office decide what documents to send to IICSA? How did the Home Office find them and choose them?
How is the Home Office sure that all the relevant documents have been sent?

Part 6 was a New question

6. What is the earliest date of Home office files that it holds and when do Home office files get archived? Where do those archived documents go?

New question asking only for metadata of only one category of 3 you mentioned

7. [was a refinement /new question] Please could you provide the titles of reports about child sexual abuse that fall under the "academic" category

It is clearly not a vexatious question nor repeated and therefore i request that the Home Office take their duties seriously under the FOI Act and stop the apparent policy of the Home Office to delay and deny information on child sexual abuse.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours faithfully,

Cathy Fox