I had a similar situation recently and phoned the ICO for advice. They said
they thought it was reasonable to disclose the identity of the person making
the request to those within the organisation whom it is necessary to contact
to obtain the information being requested. Until then I had been keeping
identities of all requestors to myself (whether internal or external) but
now I use a standard phrase when contacting others within the Trust along
the lines of "We have received an FOI request from a Mr V Meldrew of
Surbiton as follows: ...." If I am subsequently asked whether or not that
person is a member of staff I will reply one way or the other, but don't
offer the information.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carter, Antoinette (MCS) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 30 May 2006 11:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] Anonymity when making FOI requests of your
own organisation
The member of staff could have submitted their request anonymously but has
chosen not to. I therefore think that it is perfectly reasonable for you to
identify the requester to whoever you need to contact in order to answer the
request irrespective of any "awkwardness" it may cause. I'm sure managers
have worse to deal with...?
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Graeme Hawley
Sent: 30 May 2006 10:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Anonymity when making FOI requests of your own
organisation
Hi,
What is the score when an employee makes an FOI request of their own
organisation? I am the FOI officer at our organisation, and have received a
request for info from a member of staff. They have supplied their name and
email address. I am pretty sure that in gathering the information for this,
senior management will ask who this has come from. There isn't usually a
problem when it is external, and I can say something like "a jounalist from
the Telegraph", but it will be clear from the nature of the question that
this has come from inside. Despite being the FOI officer, a request made
for information isn't made personally to me, but rather to the organisation.
I am just the guy that handles them. However, in order to satisfy the
request, there is no need for anyone else to know the identity of the
applicant. On the other hand, the organisation itself has received this
request, so who am I to say who else in the organisation should or shouldn't
know? I feel that if the management knew the identity of the applicant it
may cause awkwardness for them (damage and distress).
Does anyone have any suggestions. In order to withhold the member of
staff's name I think I need some sort of refernece from the DPA. FOISA
doesn't say anything about this.
Cheers
Graeme
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