For those of you that have been following the Duchy of Lancaster Saga I have a brief update. “Therefore depending on the verdict, you will receive either: (1) A much more detailed letter explaining the Commissioner’s view that the Duchy is not a public authority under the Regulations. This verdict can be challenged by judicial […] →Read more
Section 21 is intended to apply to information that is already reasonably accessible to the applicant, e.g documents published on the internet or in books available to your local library. Unfortunately, some public authorities are using where the information can be obtained by making a very large number of queries to locator tools. For example […] →Read more
A lot of people who make FOI requests like to get the data in electronic form and I include myself in that. Often public authorities are reluctant to provide the information in electronic form perhaps because they would rather it was not republished or perhaps because it is a bit more work (in the short-term). […] →Read more
If you look at this response to a Freedom of Information Act request about the tax status of the Royal Family you can see that some of the information has been redacted… but the authority that responded to the request made a mistake, so when you highlight the paragraph you can read the text they […] →Read more
I am normally strongly against Post Office closures as I think the closure of a Post Office can contribute to the isolation of communities and of individuals. We all have to recognise though that providing a Post Office costs money and the money has to come from somewhere. I have recently obtained figures from the […] →Read more
A while ago now I appealed to the ICO and made the case that the Duchy of Lancaster is a public authority for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations. The ICO essentially said that the Duchy was a private estate and not a public authority but I asked them to look again and to […] →Read more
I searched the public register of Data Controllers to see which Electoral Registration Officers wereregistered for London Boroughs. Using various combinations of search terms including searches by place names I found that for 27 London Boroughs the Electoral Registration Officer had registered(separately) as a Data Controller. I could not find any evidence that the Electoral […] →Read more
“I am pleased to enclose the following information, which I believe satisfies your request: 15 of our front line enquiry staff hold a professional qualification inLibrarianship or Information Science You may reuse all or part of his information free of charge in anyformat or medium. You must reuse it accurately and not in a misleadingcontext” […] →Read more
There is a really good blog post on this ruling that I could not hope to match but I will quote from the ruling: “..the 1998 Act enables an interested party to inspect and copy certain documents related to the accounts of the Council. It does not create the type of general free-standing right of […] →Read more
Waltham Forest Council releases full addresses including post codes for 24Hr Off Licences. Waltham Forest – response Could this data be integrated into Open Street Map or a similar mapping project? →Read more