ICO Ref: FS50256736
PA Ref: 10041
By email: x@x
20 November 2009
ICO Ref:FS50256736
PA Ref: 10041
Dear Mr Moisiu,
Complaint about the Home Office
Firstly, I would like to apologise for the
delay in responding to your earlier emails.
From the correspondence you have provided to me, it is clear you are
dissatisfied with the Home Office’s response
in this matter. Particularly, you have been
critical of the way in which the Home Office
has interpreted your original request for
information.
To this point, it is apparent that the Home Office has read your request
as asking whether there were any
restrictions on the sharing of information
with the Portuguese authorities. However,
you have instead asserted that the focus of
your request was on the possible existence
of a press reporting gag in the case of
Madeleine McCann. Given this discrepancy,
you have argued that it was not reasonable
for the Home Office to have interpreted the
request in the way it did.
Under
the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the
Act’), an authority has a duty to read a
request objectively. Yet, if there is any
doubt about the meaning of a request,
section 1(3) of the Act requires that the
authority should return to the applicant to
seek clarification. In this instance, the
Home Office has failed to do either and so
has not addressed your request
appropriately. As noted, the Good Practice
and Enforcement team has been made aware of
this case and will continue to monitor the
compliance of the Home Office with the Act
and its associated Codes of Practice.
Turning
to the central feature of your case, I am
aware that following the involvement of this
office Mr L has revisited your request and
has correctly identified that you sought
information confirming ‘whether or not any
part of the British media has been
restricted in its reporting of the McCann
inquiry.’ He has, however, failed to provide
a response to this ‘refined’ request.
In order to take matters forward therefore, I have spoken to Mr L about
this issue. He has advised me that he has
been waiting on colleagues to come back to
him about this matter but has assured me
that he will be writing to you by 27
November 2009.
I hope that the Home Office’s response will be sufficient to meet your
original request. However, if this is not
the case, you should exhaust the Home
Office’s own complaints procedure as this
may enable an earlier resolution of the
complaint. If you are not satisfied with the
outcome of that review though, please inform
us and we will look at this further under a
new case reference number.
Yours sincerely,
A J
(FOI) Complaints Officer
Tel: 01625 545 739 |
