Universal Credit - IPA & External Reports

The request was refused by Department for Work and Pensions.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

On 06 September 2018 I made the following request for information:

“Since 01 January 2016 has the UC full service IT system been the subject of any assessments, health checks or tests by any external organisations (excluding the IPA)? If so please disclose any reports produced by those organisations as a result.”

The DWP refused to disclose the reports and the Commissioner subsequently agreed that section 31(1)(a) was engaged. I did not challenge the Commissioner’s decision notice as I trusted her judgement.

However, given that more than 2 years has elapsed I see no reason why the reports cannot be disclosed as any threats documented in the reports must have been resolved. Therefore:

RFI1: Between 01 January 2016 and 18 September 2018 the UC full service IT system was the subject of assessments, health checks or tests by external organisations (excluding the IPA)? Please disclose any reports produced by those organisations as a result.

RFI2: If the IPA has reviewed the UC programme between 01 April 2019 and 30 June 2020 it will have produced reports (PARs, Gateway, Health Checks etc). Therefore, please disclose these reports. As the Department will refuse to disclose these reports please make sure that is lists the title of the reports it is refusing to disclose in its section 17 refusal.

Please note that the scope of RFI1 and RFI2 excludes all personal information that is exempt under section 40.

Yours faithfully,

John Slater

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

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DWP Central FOI Team,

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Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 18th
November.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Universal Credit - IPA & External Reports'.

RFI1
Given the age of the information requested I suggest it stretches credibility that section 31(1)(a) can still be relied upon to refuse disclosure. If it is the case that disclosure of information, that is between 2 and 4 years of age, would prejudice prevention of crime then I suggest that the public are entitled to draw the conclusion that the UC IT system is not as secure as portrayed by the DWP. Perhaps this explains why UC fraud rates are so high.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/u...

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.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.gov.uk/dwp

DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear John Slater,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 18th
December.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

John Slater left an annotation ()

I submitted a complaint to the ICO about the DWP reliance on Section 31(1)(a) on 03/02/2021.