25th April 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0538754

Dear Mr Ali

Request for Information
 
Thank you for your e-mail of 20 April 2014, in which you have asked us to
provide you with information relating to “… what other departments or
organisations you have a 100 per cent record of finding in favor off, or
is just the department who pay your wages you never find against”.
 
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 20 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

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16th May 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0538754

Dear Mr Ali

Request for Information
 
Further to our acknowledgement of 25 April 2014, we have been considering
your request for information to the ICO in which you asked “Under the
freedom of information act, can you tell me what other departments or
organisations you have a 100 per cent record of finding in favor off, or
is just the department who pay your wages you never find against”.
 
As you have not specified whether you are interested in those cases that
relate to alleged breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004
we "find in favour of", nor have you specified any dates or names of
particular data controllers or public authorities you are interested in,
we have interpreted your request widely to include all records we still
hold which show the outcomes of all complaints and concerns we have
considered.
 
Due to the numbers of records involved which would need to be collated by
reference to each party complained about and relevant outcomes for each,
this would certainly take in excess of 18 hours to produce meaningful
records which could be checked to see which of those parties had a 100%
“finding in favour of” outcome.
 
You may be aware that section 12 of the FOIA makes clear that a public
authority (such as the ICO) is not obliged to comply with an FOIA request
if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request
would exceed the ‘appropriate limit'.  The ‘appropriate limit’ for the
ICO, as determined in the ‘Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004’ is £450.  We have
determined that £450 would equate to 18 hours work. 
 
Therefore, given that the process of collating the information you have
asked for would take in excess of 18 hours we would ask if you could
clarify the scope of your request so that we are clear about what
information it is you are asking for.
 
For example, if you can specify whether you are particularly interested in
DPA concerns, FOIA complaints and/or EIR complaints this would help, as
would your narrowing the dates that you are interested in and specifying
any named data controllers and/or public authorities which are of
particular interest to you.
 
Once you have provided the clarification we need we will continue to
process your request, and will respond as soon as possible.
 
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

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Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This
message is to confirm that we have received your correspondence. Please do
not reply to this email.

If you have submitted a new complaint

We aim to provide an initial response and case reference number within 30
days.

If you have requested advice

We aim to respond to requests for advice within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case

This will be added to your case and considered on allocation to a case
officer.

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Yours sincerely,

ICO Customer Contact Department

[1]Making a request for information held by the ICO

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Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

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21st May 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0538754

Dear Mr Ali

Request for Information
 
Thank you for your e-mail of 16 May 2014, in which you have provided the
clarification we sought regarding the scope of your request for
information.  Your request will continue to be dealt with under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 using the reference number shown above. 
 
Following receipt of your latest e-mail we will now respond to your
request promptly, and no later than 16 June 2014, which is 20 working days
from the day after we received your refined 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.org
 
 
 

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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

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4th June 2014

Case Reference Number IRQ0538754

Dear Mr Ali

Request for Information
 
Further to our acknowledgement of 21 May 2014 we can now respond to your
revised request for information which we received on 16 May 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 original information request you expressed interest in “…
departments or organisations you have a 100% record of finding in favour
of …”, and in your e-mail of 16 May you confirmed that you were
particularly interested in “… cases made under the Freedom of Information
Act for the Cabernet Office and HMRC, for the years, 2014.”.
 
Information Held
 
Having carried out a search of our electronic case management system, we
have located all completed casework records from 1 January 2014 to 21 May
2014 (the date the search was carried out).  The results are set out in
the table below, and include complaints made to the ICO about potential
breaches of both the FOIA and the Environmental Information Regulations
2004 (the EIR), given the similar nature of the requirements of both
pieces of legislation.  Please note there is only one completed EIR
complaint in the figures below (this relates to the Cabinet Office and was
closed as ‘No internal review’).
 
 

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |Number of completed casework |
|Closure category: |items |
| |1 January 2014 to 21 May 2014: |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Cabinet Office |48 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – DN served – not upheld |9 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – DN served – partially upheld |2 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – DN served - upheld |5 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – Insufficient evidence |9 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – No internal review |14 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – Withdrawn – informally |9 |
|resolved | |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|HMRC |16 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – DN served – not upheld |4 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – Insufficient evidence |6 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – No internal review |4 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – Undue delay |1 |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Closed – Withdrawn – informally |1 |
|resolved | |
|---------------------------------------+--------------------------------|
|Grand Total: |64 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

 
The definitions for each closure category used in the table are as
follows:
 
Decision notice served – not upheld - Used when ICO makes a decision that
agrees with a public authority’s handling of a request. The complaint is
not upheld. 
 
Decision notice served – upheld – Used when ICO makes a decision that
disagrees with a public authority’s handling of a request. The complaint
is upheld.
 
Decision notice served – partially upheld – Used when ICO makes a decision
that only partially agrees with a public authority’s handling of a
request. This should focus on the substantive issues rather than any
procedural breaches.
 
Insufficient evidence of breach – Although sufficient information has been
provided, it remains unclear what information was processed/whether
marketing material was sent by a particular organisation.
 
No internal review – Used when no internal review has been engaged with/by
the authority.
 
Undue delay – Used when the complaint was raised with the ICO after an
undue length of time.
 
Withdrawn informally resolved – Used when, after negotiation with one or
both parties, the customer agrees to withdraw their complaint. 
 
 
As you can see from this table, as far as FOIA complaints about the
Cabinet Office are concerned, of the 16 decision notices which have been
issued so far this year nine have not been upheld, two have been partially
upheld and five have been upheld, representing a variety of outcomes.
 
Whilst the four decision notices we have issued this year relating to HMRC
have all resulted in the FOIA complaint not being upheld, we can confirm
that there are previous decisions notices where the complaint has been
upheld either partially or wholly.
 
 
Review Procedure
 
I 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 Access Team at the address below or
e-mail [1][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 make a complaint under either the Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations.
 
A copy of our review procedure can be accessed from our website [2]here.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Antonia Swann      Lead Information Access Officer
 
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
T. 01625 545894  F. 01625 524510  [3]www.ico.org.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

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Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have made a request for information held by the ICO we will contact
you as soon as possible if we need any further information to enable us to
answer your request. If we don't need any further information we will
respond to you within our published, and statutory, service levels. For
more information please visit [1]http://ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_comply

. 

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
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If you are concerned about the way an organisation is handling your
personal information, we will not usually look into it unless you have
raised it with the organisation first. For more information please see our
webpage ‘raising a concern with an organisation’ (go to our homepage and
follow the link ‘for the public’). You can also call the number below.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage ‘Service
standards and what to expect' (go to our homepage and follow the links for
‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to expect'). You can
also call the number below.

If there is anything you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

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21 August 2014

Case Reference Number RCC0552371

Dear Mr Ali

Request for Review
 
Thank you for your e-mail of 19 August 2014, in which you have asked for a
review of our response to your information request, provided under our
reference IRQ538754.  This will be dealt with under the new 'RCC'
reference number shown above, and in accordance with our review procedure
which we sent to you previously.
 
In line with our procedures we will respond by 17 September 2014, which is
20 working days from the date we received your e-mail.
 
If you wish to add further information or evidence to your case please
reply to this email, being careful not to amend the information in the
‘subject’ field. This will ensure that the information is added directly
to your case.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Antonia Swann      Lead Information Access Officer
 
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
T. 01625 545894  F. 01625 524510  [1]www.ico.org.uk
 

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Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
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28 August 2014 
 

Request reference: IRQ0538754
Internal review reference: RCC0552371
 

Dear Mr Ali
 
You have asked us to review the way we dealt with your Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request ‘The Information Commissioner has 100 per
cent record in finding in favor of the Civil Service Comission’. We have
now reviewed the matter.
 
Your request
 
On 20 April 2014, you made the following request.
 
‘…can you tell me what other departments or organisations you have a 100
per cent record of finding in favor off...’

On 16 May 2014, you refined your request as follows.
 
‘I am only referring to cases made under the Freedom of Information Act
and for the Cabernet Office and HMRC, and for the years, 2014.’
 
We interpreted your request as being for the number of FOIA cases we had
found ‘in favour of’ the Cabinet Office and HMRC in 2014 to date.

Our response
 
On 4 June 2014, we explained that between 1 January and 21 May 2014 (the
date we made the search), we had completed:
 
 

* 48 cases about the Cabinet Office; and
* 16 cases about HMRC.

 
On our system, all closed cases have a ‘closure category’. Because these
categories don’t simply say who we found ‘in favour of’, we gave you the
closure categories for all of these cases and described what they meant.
 
We then went on to say that this meant that for the Cabinet Office, we had
closed:
 
 

* 9 cases as ‘not upheld’,
* 2 cases as ‘partially upheld’, and
* 5 cases as ‘upheld’.

 
For HMRC, we had closed
 
 

* 4 cases as ‘not upheld’.

 
Internal review
 
On 19 August, you asked us to review the way we had handled this request,
on the following basis.
 
‘That's just mumble jumble - please answer the question’.
 
I hope the following helps.
 
We will only have made a formal decision in favour of one party or
another, where we have served a Decision Notice. We can and do close cases
without Decision Notices, for reasons such as we don’t have enough
information about a request to say what has happened or the complainant
has not been through the internal review process. 
 
Where we serve a Decision Notice and close a case as ‘not upheld’, this
means that we did not uphold the complaint. We therefore found ‘in favour
of’ the public authority.
 
Where we served a Decision Notice and close a case as ‘upheld’, this means
that we did uphold the complaint. We therefore found ‘in favour of’ the
complainant.
 
In light of this, I can give you the following information.
 
Decision Notices served on the Cabinet Office - 16
 
Of these 16:
 
 

* in 9 cases - we found in favour of the Cabinet Office,
* in 5 cases - we found in favour of the complainant, and
* in 2 cases - we found in favour of the Cabinet Office in with respect
to some parts of the way they handled the request and in favour of the
complainant with respect to other parts.

 
Decision notices served on HMRC - 4
 
Of these 4 cases:
 
 

* in 4 cases - we found in favour of HMRC.

Next steps
 
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of this review, you can report
your concern to the ICO as the regulator of the FOIA, under section 50 of
the FOIA. You can get further information about this from the ‘[1]Report a
concern’ section of our website.
 
If you are already familiar with this process, you can send your
information by email to [2][email address] , or by post to Customer
Contact Department, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Faye Spencer
Group Manager
Information Commissioner’s Office
 
 

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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

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Thank you for contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office. We confirm
that we have received your correspondence.

If you have raised a new information rights concern - we aim to send you
an initial response and case reference number within 30 days.

Please note that if you are concerned about the way an organisation is
handling your personal information, we will not usually look into it
unless you have raised it with the organisation first. For more
information please see our webpage ‘[1]raising a concern with an
organisation’ (go to our homepage and follow the link ‘for the public’).
You can also call the number below.

If you want an internet search provider to remove a link to information
about you – it will be a little longer before we can respond. We are
currently considering the implications of the recent European Union Court
of Justice decision and will contact you again in the next six weeks.

Please note that we will not look at requests to remove internet search
results unless you have first asked the search provider to consider it.
You should also send us copies of all related correspondence.

If you have requested advice - we aim to respond within 14 days.

If your correspondence relates to an existing case - we will add it to
your case and consider it on allocation to a case officer.

Copied correspondence - we do not respond to correspondence that has been
copied to us.

For more information about our services, please see our webpage
‘[2]service standards and what to expect’ (go to our homepage and follow
the links for ‘Report a concern’ and ‘Service standards and what to
expect'). You can also call the number below.

If you have a matter you would like to discuss with us, please call our
helpline on 0303 123 1113 (local rate).

Yours sincerely

The Information Commissioner’s Office

Making a request for information held by the ICO?

For more information about the ICO’s handling of requests for information
please visit [3]http://www.ico.org.uk/about_us/how_we_co...

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Tel: 0303 123 1113 Fax: 01625 524 510 Web: www.ico.org.uk

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