Third Party representatives
Dear Home Office,
In my FOI request regarding the remit of the CCC, you stated that 'word general is used in the name of Croydon Contact Centre General Immigration helpline to distinguish this service from the more case specific advice commonly available from third party representatives.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...
Please could you provide me with the following information;
Does the Home Office provide case specific advice?
Why does the Home Office expect people to pay for third party representation REGARDING THEIR OWN rules and procedures?
If the Home Office provides advice for case specific cases,
Where would one get this advice from, as you have stated that the general enquiry line is 'general', and the website does not give case-specific advice?
Yours faithfully,
CA Purkis
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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 'Third Party representatives'.
Please could you tell me why my Freedom of Information request has not been answered in the statutory time period? Let me guess? It will now be regarded as a time a time complaint, giving your organisation a further 20 days to delay members of the public getting the information they require. I expect a prompt reply. Lets see if you consider this one vexatious too?
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/t...
Yours faithfully,
CA Purkis
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We aim to provide a response to all FOI requests within 20 working days.
If your message is with regard to an existing FOI case or is a general
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Thank you.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
Please see attached in response to your request for information.
P. Zebedee
Information Management Services (IMS) | Information Services Centre |
Corporate Services
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Alan Wright left an annotation ()
Vexatious - "denoting an action or the bringer of an action that is brought without sufficient grounds for winning, purely to cause annoyance" or any other question the Home Office doesn't want to answer, why else do they Refuse a higher percentage of requests than almost any other government department?
CA Purkis left an annotation ()
Strange that - isn't it Alan?
The Home Office Freedom of Information Team seem to have taken it upon themselves to decide why people ask FOI requests. And your (independent) review process is anything but. They have no separate review team - they just pass it on to the person sitting next to them. How many reviews have been upheld? Well - we are not allowed to know that either. Its all very MI6. Except they are actually good at their job and know what they are doing.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...
[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
They have not stated why they think this request to be vexatious.
Just using the word at you, like some magic incantation, is not enough.
[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
117. In most circumstances the authority must still issue a refusal notice within 20 working days. This should state that they are relying on section 14(1) and include details of their internal review procedures and the right to appeal to the ICO.
Where is the information in the reply that you can refer the request to the ICO?
http://ico.org.uk/news/blog/2013/~/media...
CA Purkis left an annotation ()
They have made me routinely vexatious.
And as you can see - they have decided that I am aggressive, abusive and annoying. In absolute fairness to them, they have followed all the correct procedures with regard to informing me of my right to complain to ICO etc. What they have failed to recognise is that as an organisation they have failed me at almost every other level, ignored my reasonable complaints and failed to answer pertinent and polite correspondence. The only other way to get information from The Home Office is through the FOI team. They have now issued me with a list of subjects I am unable to ask questions about. The Home Office, it seems, are perfectly entitled to get a UK Border Inspector to call me and ask me about a PERSONAL civil law suit against one of their employees. What business is this of theirs? A little intimidation perhaps? I have written to them FIVE times asking why they called and asked me about my personal case, and they have TOTALLY ignored me. It seems they can get away with anything.
[Name Removed] (Account suspended) left an annotation ()
If they can't be bothered to respond to you then...surely ...
When they ring up, refuse to speak just leave the phone off the hook and walk away.
Quid pro quo.
C Rock left an annotation ()
The process is beyond farce. We ask questions for reasons. It is sad that those with answers can not be straight in the first place to avoid breaking down every combined failure into its component parts for questioning or simple reasoning.
Alan Wright left an annotation ()
Some Public Bodies seem to have lost the plot and forgotten what the FOI is about. Maybe they need a reminder
"The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities.
It does this in two ways:
1) public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities; and
2) members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities.
The Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland"
CA Purkis left an annotation ()
vexatious is not part of the FOI Act. Going to court will force any organisation to give you reasonably requested information. The Courts are only interested in one thing. The Letter of the law. They don't care if the FOI team are overworked, underpaid and take things personally.
Alan Wright left an annotation ()
Methinks they've got it wrong
"It is important to remember that section 14(1) can only be applied to the request itself, and not the individual who submits it. An authority cannot, therefore, refuse a request on the grounds that the requester himself is vexatious.
Similarly, an authority cannot simply refuse a new request solely on the basis that it has classified previous requests from the same individual as vexatious."
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CA Purkis left an annotation ()
#spreadtheword on Twitter. Don't ask questions which can not be answered. You will then be deemed as vexatious. They tend to 'pick' on people as well, and routinely class them as vexatious. The question remains - why does the Home Office expect people to pay for third party advice regarding their own information? Sarah Rapson says its because 'such advice might be construed as agreement that an application based on it will be successful'. Is that not the point? I.O.W they are not happy providing advice about THEIR OWN rules and regulations, in case they are WRONG - which they are a lot of the time, because despite what the DIRECTOR GENERAL OF UK VISA'S AND IMMIGRATION says - it gives out advice ALL the time.