Dear Department for Exiting the European Union,

Please could you inform me of:
- The direct-dial telephone number of your departmental switchboard
- The direct-dial telephone number of your Freedom of Information team

I am aware that these are not listed on your website and that these teams would, presumably, prefer contact through email. However, assuming they do have telephones, the information I am requesting is subject to FOIA.

Yours faithfully,

G Webber

Dear DEXEU Freedom of Information Team Mailbox,

Please conduct an internal review.

You have stated that you “are not obliged” to supply me with a telephone number for your switchboard. That is not a satisfactory response. The FOIA requires you to supply information that you hold, or else to cite a specific FOIA exemption which applies. You have done neither and are therefore in breach of the Act.

You also state that you “do not hold” a telephone number for your FOI team. This does not seem plausible. They must have telephones, and you must know the number for them.

You will be aware of guidance from the Information Commissioner which states that internal reviews should be completed within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely,

G Webber

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your reply - how you were able to respond to this internal review request within 10 minutes while I’m still waiting for the conclusion of your other one 10 weeks later is beyond me, but there we are.

FOI TEAM

You have explained that the only numbers you hold are for individual officers and not for the team as a whole. However, if you are withholding these on “data protection” grounds, as you suggest, you need to cite the relevant FOIA exemption (section 40) and explain how you reached the conclusion that it applies. There is a public interest test involved. In principle, it is difficult to see how disclosing a departmental contact number (as opposed to a home number) would fall foul of the Data Protection Act, and this is the sort of detail your response needs to address. I’m a little surprised you’ve never received any training on this, but I believe you can find guidance on the Information Commissioner’s website.

SWITCHBOARD

You say there is no telephone number for members or the public to call in with enquiries, however, this is not what I asked for. Your department must have some central reception, office or help desk which will receive incoming calls from, for instance, Select Committees or other external stakeholders. That is what ‘switchboard’ means. Presumably if I stroll into your offices at 9 Downing Street there is a desk with a receptionist behind it (who directs visitors to the right area of the building after first checking that the official they are visiting is present) and a telephone on it: that telephone, for instance, must have a number. In any event, you will need to respond to this element of my request within the terms of the Act, as a mere statement that you “are not obliged” to respond is inadequate. Again, this is indicative of a lack of FOIA awareness which, as head of team, you may wish to address.

I’m happy for you to take 20 working days to have a stab at writing a better FOIA response before I refer this to the Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

G Webber

Dear Nick

Thank you for your follow-up response. For the reasons I have given, I do not accept either of your 'we do not hold this information' answers. Please could you clarify whether you will be conducting an internal review or whether I should take this straight to the ICO. If I do not hear back from you by close of play on Monday I will assume the latter.

While I'm writing, may I remind you that I am still waiting for your "Department" to respond to my internal review request on FOI DEX000993. I requested an internal review on 22 January, so according to ICO guidance you should have completed it by 21 February. You will notice that it is now 6 April.

Yours sincerely,

G Webber

Dear Nick

Further to my email last week, I will take your message of 3 April to be the conclusion of your department's internal review into FOI DEX001110, and will therefore be in touch with the Information Commissioner to appeal.

May I also take this opportunity to remind you that your internal review in FOI DEX000993 is considerably overdue (I may have mentioned this fact before).

Yours sincerely,

G Webber