Meeting the meta-request
Is it vexatious to follow up a freedom of information request by later asking the public authority for all their internal correspondence on the handling of your initial request?
This is what is called a 'meta-request' in the trade. Some FOI officers would certainly find it vexing - but that doesn't necessarily give them the right to consider the request 'vexatious' and thus legally reject it.
Earlier this month the Scottish Information Commissioner Kevin Dunion ruled that the Scottish Government has to give the journalist Rob Edwards (a big and successful user of FOI) various documents relating to how they handled a previous request of his. Dunion dismissed the argument about vexation, along with most of the case put forwards by Scottish ministers.
Dunion has been considering this complaint for sixteen months. But it seems that such long delays in Scotland are being eliminated. Dunion says that he expects he will soon finish dealing with all complaints made to him before the start of the year (apart from some delayed by legal actions).
This will be a stark contrast with the backlog of cases at the office of the UK Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, who covers FOI in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is still dealing with appeals submitted over three years ago (including one of mine).
Another difference is that while Thomas's caseload is stable, the number of complaints to the Scottish Commissioner is dropping, as Dunion discussed in a presentation he gave yesterday to a seminar at the Constitution Unit at University College, London. The reasons for this are unclear. Is it a good sign that requesters are getting the material they want, or a bad sign that they are no longer bothering?
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Rother District Council appear to have relented their vexatious crusade against people using email as an "address for correspondence" after an intervention from the Information Commissioner.
You can view that documentation and an amount of RDC's communication regarding whatdotheyknow.com at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/communications_about_whatdotheyk
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I've finally been told that my complaint about Reading Borough Council will shortly (no definition given here) be assigned a case officer.
Perhaps I should count myself lucky... after all it is only 14 months since the complaint was filed and in the meantime I've been elected as a councillor!
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14 months! You lucky chap!
It is now 17 months since my complaint against a BBC refusal was filed wit hthe ICO, and I'm no nearer being assigned a case officer...
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It isn't often I agree with public authorities, but in this instance, I do. What does the journalist expect to get? Criticism of how lazy he is for continually indulging in fishing trips instead of doing some proper investigative journalism? Data Protection Act Subject Access Request, FOI won't get him that material. Discussions of withheld material - subject to the same exemption/exception that applied in the first place. I suspect the latter, in which case it is no more than an attempt to find out more about the withheld information. And what is that, if not vexatious?
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.... and if the journalist was concerned that the public interest test was done wrong, too much weight was given to 3rd party opinions etc, then that is what the internal review/Information Commissioner appeal (about the original request) is for.
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When is a door not a door? When it's a Tsar! (Not funny, I know. You can have that Information for Free.) KD seems to have taken the SIC role as a personal challenge seeking the kudos of the commweal' and not the Estaitis. Do remember them taking on new staff about a year ago. That counter-intuitive approach (more staff = more work) might be part of the solution...
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