FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 SUPERVISORY POWERS OF THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER ENFORCEMENT NOTICE. DATED 2 June 2015

Transcription

1 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 SUPERVISORY POWERS OF THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER ENFORCEMENT NOTICE DATED 2 June 2015 To: of: The Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland Rosepark House Upper Newtownards Road Belfast BT4 3NR 1. The Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland ( DFP ) is a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ( FOIA ) pursuant to section 3(1)(a) and Part I Schedule Section 1(1) of FOIA states (1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled (a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and (b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him. 3. Section 10(1) of FOIA states a public authority must comply with section 1(1) promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following receipt. 4. Section 52(1) of FOIA states If the Commissioner is satisfied that a public authority has failed to comply with any of the requirements of Part I, the Commissioner may serve the authority with a notice (in this Act referred to as an enforcement notice ) requiring the authority to take within such time as may be specified in the notice, such steps as may be so specified for complying those requirements. 1

2 5. The Commissioner has been in correspondence with the DFP since May 2014 in relation to the timeliness of its responses to requests for information made to it. 6. On 31 October 2014 the Commissioner met with the Northern Ireland Permanent Secretaries Group. At the meeting he expressed concern about late responses to some FOI requests and made it clear that if improvements were not forthcoming in the following 6 months enforcement action would be likely to follow. 7. On 10 March 2015 the Commissioner wrote to the DFP noting that whilst some improvements in performance had been made, 11 requests remained outstanding, 8 of which were over six months old. In view of this the Commissioner informed the DFP that it intended to formally monitor the authority s timeliness over three months, between February and April Furthermore, the Commissioner made it clear that he expected all outstanding requests over six months old to be responded to by 30 April The DFP were informed that the Commissioner was likely to consider exercising his formal enforcement powers if this target was not met. 8. On 5 May 2015 the DFP informed the Commissioner that 10 requests over six months old remained outstanding. The Commissioner wrote to the DFP on 11 May 2015 notifying it of his intention to issue an Enforcement Notice under section 52(1) of FOIA. 9. On 2 June 2015 the DFP confirmed that those requests for information identified in Annex 1 of this Notice remained outstanding. Therefore, whilst the Commissioner recognises the work that the DFP has put into resolving these requests, the Commissioner considers it necessary to issue this Notice. 10. In the circumstances, the Commissioner is satisfied that DFP has failed to comply with sections 1(1) and 10(1) of FOIA in respect of those requests for information identified in Annex In view of the matters referred to above, the Commissioner hereby gives notice that in exercise of his powers under Section 52 of FOIA he requires the DFP to take the following steps within 30 days of the date of this Notice: (i) Comply with section 1(1) of FOIA in respect of each information request identified in Annex 1; or 2

3 (ii) Issue a refusal notice in accordance with section 17 of FOIA in respect of each information request identified in Annex There is a right of appeal against this Notice to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights), part of the General Regulatory Chamber. Information about appeals is set out in the attached Annex Any Notice of Appeal should be sent so that it is received by the Tribunal within 28 days of the date on which this Notice is sent. Dated the 2 nd day of June 2015 Signed:... Graham Smith Deputy Information Commissioner Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF 3

4 ANNEX 1 Response Reference Information Requested Date DFP/ /09/2011 EU funded organisations reported to police Disciplinary action taken against a senior DFP/ /10/2011 member of staff DFP/ /08/2014 Outstanding AQs DFP/ /08/2014 Outstanding AQs 4

5 ANNEX 2 RIGHTS OF APPEAL AGAINST DECISIONS OF THE COMMISSIONER 1. Section 57 of the FOIA gives any public authority upon whom an Enforcement Notice has been served a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) against the notice. 2. If you decide to appeal and if the Tribunal considers:- a) that the notice against which the appeal is brought is not in accordance with the law; or b) to the extent that the notice involved an exercise of discretion by the Commissioner, that he ought to have exercised his discretion differently, the Tribunal will allow the appeal or substitute such other notice as could have been served by the Commissioner. In any other case the Tribunal will dismiss the appeal. 3. You may bring an appeal by serving a notice of appeal on the Tribunal at the following address: GRC & GRP Tribunals PO Box 9300 Leicester LE1 8DJ Tel: Fax: GRC@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk Website: The notice of appeal should be served on the Tribunal within 28 days of the date on which the enforcement notice was sent. 4. The statutory provisions concerning appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) are contained in sections 57 to 61 of, and Schedule 4 to, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (General Regulatory Chamber) Rules 2009 (Statutory Instrument 2009 No (L.20)). 5