Use of Section 8(1)(b) of the FOI Act

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

There has been a noticeable increase in the DWP citing Section 8(1)(b) of the FOI Act and refusing to process requests for information any further. This includes a significant number where, on the face of it, the name of the requester appears to be credible.

Please supply the following information:

1. All guidance used by the DWP to assess/decide if a pseudonym is being used by a requester.
2. Data sources used by the DWP to assess the name of requesters to check they are ‘real’.

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

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J Newman left an annotation ()

Without doubt, whilst they may not quite break the law, some activities are "covert" to say the least.

J Newman left an annotation ()

As a slight aside I had a brush with DWP in this area a couple of years ago (so things may have changed). As regards their own correspondence, the “author” had to sign it off in a way that made them identifiable, which of course does not necessarily mean the convention of title/Christian name/surname.

As regards the retention of information, there were no more than “guidelines”. There was however no audit trail, so it was impossible to say what was destroyed when, so impossible to establish how closely the guidelines were followed as there were no compliance checks either.

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

1 Attachment

Please find attached our response to your FoI request.

Central FoI Team

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Dear DWP freedom-of-information-requests,

Thank you for such a prompt and helpful response.

Yours sincerely,

John Slater

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant
information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally
expect a response within 20 working days.
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
For further information on the Freedom of Information Act within DWP
please click on the link below.
 
[1]http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...
 

show quoted sections

References

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1. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/freedom-of-informa...

Doug Paulley left an annotation ()

I've removed two annotations from this page at the request of their author.
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Doug - volunteer, WhatDoTheyKnow