Dear Forest of Dean District Council,

Please provide me with a copy of the following information:

1) The number of concerns that have been raised with the council by whistleblowers during the past 3 calendar years.

For clarity, I am interested in concerns raised by employees, members, agency staff or third party contractors.

I would like this information broken down by calendar year if possible, but a breakdown by financial year would also be acceptable.

Yours faithfully,

Helen Cross

Dear Forest of Dean District Council,

Thank you for your prompt reply to my message. I'm afraid that I don't quite understand what you mean by a "mailbox that does not record new requests."

Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires that a request be made in writing, include the requester’s name and an address for correspondence; and describe the information being requested. There is no requirement for a request to be sent to a particular mailbox, indeed, I note that as per ICO guidance, even requests made via social media are valid for the purposes of the act. [1]

I do not wish to resubmit my request using your online form because I believe that I have already made a valid request for information. I also note that your webform has certain mandatory fields that would require me to provide information that I am not obliged to by law.

I would be grateful if you would confirm that you are processing my request for information, or alternatively, if you would provide me with the email address of your Monitoring Officer so that I might ask for an internal review into your handling of my request.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter,

Helen Cross

[1] https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

Dear Forest of Dean District Council,

Thank you again for responding promptly. I am grateful for the clarification, and for your acknowledgement of receipt of my request.

Kind Regards,

Helen Cross