Upper tribunal taking too long

The request was refused by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Dear Her Majesty’s Courts and the Tribunals Service,

I have a query regarding the process time of an application, made in April 2017 to tribunal against a decision of the first tribunal, for permission to appeal to upper tribunal

1. what is law,policy, or court/tribunal practice regarding the processing time for a first tribunal
judge or Upper Tribunal Judge in order to make a decision on an application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal was made?
It’s been 6 months , and quite a long wait

Yours faithfully,
Aamir

HMCTS Customer Service (Correspondence),

Dear Mr Malik

Thank you for your email of 23 October about the length of time you have waited for your tribunal.

Your enquiry did not fall under the Freedom of Information regime The Freedom of Information Act (2000) gives individuals and organisations the right of access to all types of recorded information held, at the time the request is received, by public authorities such as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Section 84 of the Act states that in order for a request for information to be handled as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it must be for recorded information. For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a copy of a policy, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy in place. On occasion, the Ministry of Justice receives requests that do not ask for recorded information, but ask more general questions about, for example, a policy, opinion or a decision.

As the information you have asked for is already in the public domain your request is not covered by the Act. If you could let me know which tribunal you are enquiring about I can provide the information you request.

Yours sincerely

Christine Worsley | HM Courts & Tribunals Service | Customer Investigations Team | Customer Directorate
10th Floor (10.34)  |  102 Petty France |  London |  SW1H 9AJ
 e-mail: [email address]

Ching Smith left an annotation ()

"Section 84 of the Act states that in order for a request for information to be handled as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, it must be for recorded information. For example, a Freedom of Information request would be for a copy of a policy, rather than an explanation as to why we have that policy in place."

They are suggesting that freedom of Information requests are invalid if they ask a question, or ask for an explanation. They should refer to the guidance on the Information Commissioner’s website under the heading; “Can a question be a valid request?”. It is clearly the Commissioner’s view that not only a question may be a valid request but asking for an explanation also may be valid.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...