In message
<[log in to unmask]>, at
09:59:25 on Tue, 11 May 2010, "Baines, Jonathan"
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>"It's because of legal advice THEY'VE had" - if this means the public
>authority, then correspondence then the request should be (or should have
>been) put to the public authority and not the Councillor.
The council seems like a more suitable target, but some people clearly
believe that an elected member (especially one from the ruling party,
known to chair committees etc) is somehow "part of the council", but I
can accept that this is merely a misapprehension.
>There is a fundamental distinction between disclosing legal advice and
>justifying the legal basis for a position. The former is (to an extent, of
>course) protected by LPP,
LPP will prevent the lawyer disclosing it, or even a council employee if
it relates to an ongoing case, but it shouldn't prevent the council from
disclosing it if they wanted to. This is a common problem with FOI/DPA
it seems, people generalising a prohibition that only applies in limited
circumstances.
>the latter is what anyone should be prepared to do
>when a dispute arises which engages points of law.
The process of determining the "legal basis" is surely documented
somewhere, if not in "external legal advice", then as minutes of an
internal meeting.
>Of course, an unhelpful public authority might refuse to explain their legal
>position, saying a request for a statement of a legal position is not a
>request for information falling under FOIA.
I wonder why a local council would want to be "unhelpful" in this
regard, when the issue is them documenting "how helpful" they have been.
>The next best thing to do would be to write to the Council's FOI officer
>saying you understand that the Council feels under a legal duty to report on
>FOI statistics, and could he explain the legal basis behind the belief. Cut
>the Councillor out of the picture.
Indeed.
>(I should add that I can't think of any specific legal duty to report stats,
That's useful, thanks.
>but there are more general audit requirements and expectations on a public
>authority which might explain the position).
The effort involved in FOI activity might be of no more interest to
local taxpayers than any other aspect of their administration. For
example "how much does it cost to plan how to reschedule your refuse
collection around a public holiday".
Of course, if it then requires an FOI request to obtain the information
on how much it costs to process FOI requests, we are on a rather
slippery slope...
>-----Original Message-----
>From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
>Sent: 11 May 2010 07:27
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: [data-protection] Statistics for FOI requests
>
>This is a spill-over from a discussion on another list...
>
>A District Councillor says he dislikes FOI because it costs the council a lot
>of money to track, and report on statistics regarding the number of requests
>outcomes etc.
>
>Others say that they can see no requirement to do that, in the Act or OIC
>guidance [I haven't checked if that's true].
>
>Councillor changes tune and says it [the tracking etc] is because of legal
>advice they've had.
>
>(You can guess the next bit...) Someone asks him 'under FOI' for a copy of
>that legal advice.
>
>He refuses because (a) he says he's not a public authority, and (b)
>disclosing legal advice is exempt.
>
>Oddly enough, he didn't reply to a previous 'FOI request' for the cost to the
>council of the bureaucracy he dislikes.
>
>Before this all gets completely out of hand, who is right so far... and
>what's the best next thing to ask?
>--
>Roland Perry
>
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