Your Right To Know

Email from Information Commissioner’s Office received 4 August 2005.
Dear Heather
Please find attached the information you requested in our telephone conversation on Monday.
I have attached the amended Section 50 complaints spreadsheet. I have also attached an excel spreadsheet showing the information you received from Ged Tracey in hard copy, that being Awaiting Classification and EIR.

As you are aware in order to provide the information in the form you are requesting takes a high volume of resource, I have provided this service for you as I feel I may have misunderstood your original written
request. My understanding being that you required FOI complaints information and the information we hold regarding FOI Complaints resides in the section 50 case types, in fact you had meant information
appertaining to any application we had received and also determine complaints for FOI and EIR.

As I stated in my response to your original request, we cannot guarantee to provide this information in an electronic form, the volume of information grows daily and it already has exceeded the cost limit to
provide it. However I also recognise that some of the information you require is useful to the public and we are presently reviewing how we might proactively produce the relevant information appertaining to casework in the future.

Yours Sincerely
Dawn Monaghan
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Email from H. Brooke to ICO sent 4 August 2005
Hi Dawn,
If at all possible could you get me the corrected and full database by tomorrow? I have attached the version you gave me. Is it correct? I am unclear about the line discrepancy mentioned by your colleague.

As we discussed earlier, I seek the full list of complaints (EIR,FOI,yet to be decided) in electronic format, as stated in my initial request. In order to make the request easier, I agree that the actual detail of the complaint need not be included, though it would be helpful for future research.

Many thanks!
Heather
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Email from ICO sent Wed 27/07/2005 11:10
Dear Heather
Thank you for your email. I apologise for not replying earlier but I have been on annual holiday since the 5th July until today.

I will endeavour to answer the specific questions you have put to me within the next the few days.
With reference to your concerns about variations in the naming pf public authorities, I can assure you this issue and others have been identified and are being addressed as part of an ongoing review of our system and processes. You will appreciate new systems, procedures and large numbers of new staff take a period of time to settle and require fine tuning, once inconsistencies have been recognised.

The ICO is presently discussing the proactive dissemination of information contained within the casework system, as you are aware decision notices are now made available; and it is our intention that statistical information be accessible through our website on a quarterly basis. We are exploring ways in which we can make relevant information contained within the casework system accessible to the public. As you point out the Scottish Information Commissioner does provided a spreadsheet of cases he has received, however you will appreciate that the volumes of cases received by the two offices significantly differ.

Regards
Dawn Monaghan
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Email sent to Ms Monaghan’s replacement while she was on leave sent 6 July 2005.

I was sent a database July 1 by Dawn Monaghan in response to my FOIA request. I have a few queries about the database that I am hoping you can answer. This is rather urgent so I cannot wait until Dawn gets back July 27. I hope you can help.

Firstly, there are 368 cases listed on this database, but Richard Thomas stated his office has received more than 1,000 complaints. Where are the remaining 600+ cases?

Secondly, three cases do not have a case type but are only listed by the media organisation who brought the complaint:
FS50062881
FS50064590
FS50064762

Could you tell me the name of the public authority the complaint was made against.
…Regards, Heather Brooke

—–Original Message—–
From: Heather Brooke
Sent: 06 July 2005 11:49
To: Dawn Monaghan
Subject: RE: Request for Information - FOI

Hi Dawn,

I’ve had some time to look through the database now. Thanks for getting it to me.

Firstly, three cases do not have a case type but are only listed by the media organisation who brought the complaint: FS50062881; FS50064590; FS50064762

Could you tell me the name of the public authority the complaint was made against.

In addition, reference codes that I have been given do not match those on this database. For instance I have a complaint against the House of Commons under review by the ICO with the ref code FAC0073128, yet there is no such coding on the database.

There appears to be great variation in the way public authorities’ names are entered into the database. I assume this is the main case management system used to track cases, so it would seem that a basic ’style guide’ is needed to ensure proper record-keeing is taking place. Just a few of the more obvious problems:

Department for Constitutional Affairs is entered five different ways.

The same is true for The Department of Trade and Industry, listed alternatively as that, Department of Trade & Industry, Department of Trade and Industry, DTI, Department of Trade + Industry

The Home Office (Prison Service) is entered that way some times but on another occasion simply as Prison Service.

Foreign Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Foreign Office

As this is a database of wide public interest, I would assume that the ICO will be making it available at regular intervals. In fact the Scottish Information Commissioner already does this on their website:

http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/appealsdecisions/investigations/index.htm

What plans are there at the ICO to do something similar?

Regards,
Heather Brooke

( I received an out of office reply to this email saying Ms Monaghan would be away until 27 July 2005)