FOI Requests

[BazzaS]

I've clearly got too much time on my hands this morning. A quick 'Google' shows people living in the UK called

 

Thomas Bola, quite a few called Emma Dale, and lots of poor souls lumbered with the name R. Skinner .

 

The remainder of the names above show only as FOI requests.

 

 

And those Thomas Bola's, Emma Dale's and R Skinner's will no doubt be able to prove their identity when the FOI request recipients require it to proceed with the request.

 

The fact they might not be pseudonyms won't stop the FOI recipients cottoning on and asking for verification.

I particularly liked the delicate phrasing of one council stating "a search has shown no council tax payer with this name on our records" (or equivalent)

 

Q: if the FOI recipient is allowed to check the requester has not used a pseudonym - does the timescale in which they have to respond start when the request is received, or only once the request has been validated as not from a pseudonym?

 

Is the use of pseudonyms going to give FOI recipients a delaying tactic?

[Peterbard]

I don't really think that it is a DPA matter, after all both the question and amswer are placed in the public domain, nor do I think they are that bothered about aliases being used.

 

I think problems arise when similar but slightly differently worded requests arrive on the same topic. They begin to get the idea that someone is trying to manipulate the response so that the odd phrase or sentence can be quoted out of context to support some hobbyhorse or other.

[Bailiff Advice]

The above link (to a request from 'Dan Stevens' to Humberside Police relates to a serious allegation against North East Lincolnshire Council). In his FOI request (to Humberside Police) 'Mr Stevens' refers to a post on this forum by a poster by the user name of 'Outlawla'.

 

The complaint to North East Lincolnshire Council is just one many complaints made regarding either 'Head H' fees, summons costs, bailiff fees, allocation of direct payments etc, etc' .

 

It is generally considered that the individual responsible for the complaint is Mr Neil Gilliatt and as evidence, below is a publicly available copy of his complaint (regarding North East Lincolnshire Council) to the First Tier Tribunal at the Information Commissioners Office. Naturally I assume that he used his real name !!

 

 

http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DBFiles/Decision/i986/2013_02_13;%20Neil%20Gilliatt;%20EA.2012.0254.pdf

 

Following Freedom of Information requests to North East Lincolnshire Council it does appear to be somewhat of a coincidence that the same query is then sent by other names including the following:

 

 

Tom Bola

 

Rex Ole

 

Malcolm Admin

 

Cyril Alfab

 

Becky Saunder

 

Dan Stevens

 

Enid Brighton

 

Arnold Layne

 

Lee Johnsone

 

Cherie Jerez

 

Hump Balustrade

 

R.Skinner

 

Emma Dale

 

Sacksen Molar

 

Enid Brighton

 

PS: As stated by me yesterday in another post:

 

I have no hesitation in saying that the FOI requests that I have read on What doThey Know are clearly written by an intelligent individual who is very knoweldgeable on the subject of council tax and whose opinion should be held in high esteem.

 

The Information Commissioners Office confirmed a few days ago that in light of the recent judgment in the Court of Appeal in the case of Dransfield v The Information Commissioner [2015] that they will be altering Section 14 of their Guidance.

 

 


Further reading and a link to the judgment here:

 

http://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23035:court-of-appeal-rules-on-vexatious-and-unreasonable-information-requests&catid=1:latest-stories

[Coughdrop]

Seems to me that common sense prevailed.