FOIA reply from Office for National Statistics, re Citizen Information Project
We have had a letter, from the Office for National Statistics, dated and postmarked 7th February 2005, delivered today 9th February, i.e. 13 working days since our FOIA request to the Office for National Statistics regarding the Citizen Information Project.
Given the paucity of public information on the Citizen Information Project, who knew that there are over 5000 documents related to it ?
Any suggestions as to how we can narrow down the request would be appreciated.
The letter:
"addressFOI Team
Office for National Statistics
Segensworth Road
Tichfield
Hants
PO15 5RRDated: 07 February 2005
Our Reference: FOI00030/QL1
Subject: FOI request exceeds Appropriate Limit
Dear: XXX
thank you for your email of 23rd January. I have been asked to reply.
In regards to your request for all emails, notes, business cases, project proposoasls, minutes of meetings and reports pertaining to the Citizens Information Project, plus All Office of Government Commerce Gateway reviews, regulatory impact, privacy audits, security risk, financial risk or similar interim or final reports of project scope and risks.
I am sure you can appreciate the Citizens Information Project is a mjor project for the Office of National Statistics, aand as so, has generated a very large number of documents, a conservative estimate would be in excess of 5000, consequently, your request exceeds the freedom of Information Act's appropriate limit as stipulate in section 12(1) of the Act, and therefore is exempt from the Act.
If yyou are able to narrow down the scope of your request the Office for National Statistics would be more than happy to consider the release of any requested information. I should also mention that at this point, that the CIP project team has indicated to me that they do have an intention to publish a large number of their documents on the website in the future.
Yours Sincerely
AAA BBB"
Comments
This is where we enter the obfuscating world of the civil service. Unless you know exactly the right question to ask - you won't get the right answer and unfortunately you can't ask the right question without some knowledge of what the answer should be. I'd recommend you recruit a mole - anyone with a @gsi.gov.uk email that can surf the intranets would be good.
Posted by: dan russ | February 10, 2005 11:12 AM