TV Licensing's "In Brief" Newsletter

The request was partially successful.

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

I am making this request for information under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I believe that TV Licensing publishes a newsletter called "In Brief" three times a year. The newsletter is distributed to TV Licensing stakeholders.

Please provide me with the following:

1. Complete and unredacted electronic copies (PDF format) of every "In Brief" issue from 2008 to date.

2. A distribution list showing who routinely receives "In Brief".

3. Any documents or guidelines governing the editorial content of "In Brief".

4. The annual cost of publishing "In Brief" from 2008 to date.

I look forward to a complete and candid disclosure in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

Yours faithfully,

Peter Jones

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, as detailed in your email below. Your request was
received on 15 January 2012. We will deal with your request as promptly
as possible, and at the latest within 20 working days. If you have any
queries about your request, please contact us at the address below.
The reference number for your request is RFI20120058.

Kind regards,
The Information Policy & Compliance Team
BBC Freedom of Information
Room 2252, BBC White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS
www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: [BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2882
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

7 Attachments

Dear Mr Jones,

Please find attached the response to your request for information, reference RFI20120058.

(A further email will shortly follow with the remaining disclosure documents, as the attachment files were too large to send in one email to you.)

Yours sincerely
Theresa Pollard

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

6 Attachments

Dear Mr Jones,

 

Please find attached the second of two emails in response to your request
for information, reference RFI20120058.

 

Attached are the remaining disclosure documents.

 

Yours sincerely

Theresa Pollard

 

BBC Information Policy and Compliance

Room 2252, White City

201 Wood Lane

London W12 7TS, UK

 

Website: [1]www.bbc.co.uk/foi

Email: [2]mailto:[BBC request email]

Tel: 020 8008 2883

Fax: 020 8008 2398

 

 
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Watchkeeper left an annotation ()

Although you asked for unredacted copies of "In Brief", I note that the contact e-mail address campaignoffice@tvlicensing.info HAS been redacted. I wonder why?

Could it be that the domain tvlicensing.info, from which that e-mail address is derived, is registered to Fishburn Hedges and not the non-existent "TV Licensing"?

http://whois.domaintools.com/tvlicensing...

Now why would the BBC want to keep quiet about that?

Watchkeeper left an annotation ()

Having looked at this further, I find an anomaly. If you look at page 4 of Disclosure Document 7 ("In Brief", Summer 2010) you'll find an article about the TV Licence blind concession followed by a "Ways to Pay" section, underneath which is a Feedback section containing an e-mail address (unredacted in this case, as it happens!)

You may like to compare this version with the one published on The Justice of the Peace [Magistrate's] Blog on the 5th July 2010:

http://tinyurl.com/6msdfyt

On his copy the Feedback section has been replaced by a "How to contact us" section which also appears in Disclosure Document 6 (Spring 2010; I haven't checked all the others). Court training sessions are provided by Julia Dudley of Fishburn Hedges (http://tinyurl.com/7vk7nga) though purporting to be from "TV Licensing" in Disclosure Document 6, Jonathan King of Stakeholder (http://tinyurl.com/74crdg3) and Fergus Reid of Smarts (http://tinyurl.com/89ryxt8). PR people all, none working for the non-existent "TV Licensing" - and providing "court training sessions"?

The magistrate says such sessions would affect magistrates' impartiality - "I cannot comment for others but I would suggest that it would certainly disturb JPs` position as impartial judges of fact and as such magistrates would use the proverbial barge pole to that organisation if direct contact were even hinted at".

Peter Jones left an annotation ()

Watchkeeper, Thanks for your great attention to detail here. I had not noticed the discrepancy. If I was a suspicious sort of person I might think that TV Licensing prepare different versions of the letter for the sole consumption of Magistrates.

Now why would they possibly want to do that?!

Peter

http://tv-licensing.blogspot.com

Dear FOI Enquiries,

A colleague has brought to my attention a discrepancy in your response to RFI20120058.

It can be clearly seen that your Disclosure Document 7, Summer 2010 edition of TV Licensing's "In Brief" newsletter, is different to that published on the Justice of the Peace's weblog here: http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2...

In particular I draw your attention to the lower portion of page 4 in each document, which are clearly different.

I thought I'd give you the informal opportunity to explain why these documents (one destined for the general public and one destined for the judiciary) appear to be different. I'd also appreciate an explanation of why the BBC failed to mention there was more than one variant of each letter.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Jones

Dear FOI Enquiries,

I draw to your attention my email of 18 March 2012, where I sought clarification of your earlier response to RFI20120058.

As I said then, information received subsequent to your initial response draws into question its accuracy.

Please can you acknowledge receipt of my 18 March email seeking clarification.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Jones

Dear FOI Enquiries,

I again draw to your attention my email of 18 March 2012, where I sought clarification of your earlier response to RFI20120058. I also sent a follow up email on 3 April 2012.

I have not received an acknowledgement to either of those emails, so I'd appreciate if you'd confirm receipt of this.

Information I have received subsequent to your response to RFI20120058 casts into doubt its accuracy.

As I mentioned previously, It can be clearly seen that your Disclosure Document 7, Summer 2010 edition of TV Licensing's "In Brief" newsletter, is different to that published on the Justice of the Peace's weblog here:
http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/2...

In particular I draw your attention to the lower portion of page 4 in each document, which are clearly different.

Your initial response failed to mention that there was more than one variant of each In Brief newsletter, as there clearly is, and I was wanting to know why?

Yours sincerely,

Peter Jones

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your emails asking for clarification about a particular aspect of our response to your response RFI20120058. Please accept my apologies that you did not receive an acknowledgement of your query earlier.

We are actively looking into your query and hope to be able to respond to you by Friday 20th April. If this is not possible we will write to you again to update you.

Yours sincerely,

Theresa Pollard
Adviser

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, 2nd Floor, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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Watchkeeper left an annotation ()

"We are actively looking into your query and hope to be able to respond to you by Friday 20th April".

The BBC's hopes have been dashed. Tuesday 24th has just gone and there's still no reply.

"If this is not possible we will write to you again to update you".

Yet another empty promise.

The BBC continues to show total contempt for the FoI process by repeatedly missing legally-defined deadlines, by failing to keep its own promises (as here) and by insincere apologies for the delays.

Doubtless you'll get the usual "Please accept our apologies for the delay in sending this response to you" as if that makes everything all right.

FOI Enquiries, British Broadcasting Corporation

Dear Mr Jones

Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your query.

We have checked the document you refer to in your email below and there is no difference between the documents in terms of the substantive content. The only difference is that the usual back panel of the newsletter in one version contains contact details for Social Inclusion (SI) organisations and helpful numbers for the national debtline, etc, and in the other version has the panel with contacts for courts presentations, fines enforcement, etc.

The summary of In Brief that we provided as part of our response to FOI reference RFI20120058 makes it clear that the newsletter is occasionally designed for a courts audience. This was quoted in response to Question 3 of the request as follows:

"The Fishburn Hedges team develops the copy and design, and distributes 'In Brief' three times a year. The pamphlet is designed for a SI (and occasionally also a courts) audience. Typically articles will include an SI re-write of a recent TV Licensing news release, an article, or an interview with one of the SI organisations that we work with, explaining the work that we do and the materials that we provide, and a regular 'Ask TV Licensing' feature which includes answers to questions submitted by the organisations we work with, and contact details for the TV Licensing team."

Therefore whilst there is a slight difference in the contact details we do not consider this to be discrepancy in the substantive content.

I also note that the Freedom of Information Act gives a right of access to information not documents.

I trust this clarifies this matter for you.

Kind regards

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
Room 2252, White City
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TS, UK

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: mailto:[BBC request email]
Tel: 020 8008 2883
Fax: 020 8008 2398

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Watchkeeper left an annotation ()

In an annotation above I pointed out that the domain name tvlicensing.info belonged to the PR agency Fishburn Hedges.

On 10th April 2012 this domain was transferred from Fishburn Hedges to the BBC, as confirmed in another FoI request. I wonder why ...

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/tr...