The Office of the Information Commissioner has emailed us, after we reminded them about our outstanding complaint (which has been with them for 6 months) regarding the Office for Government Commerce's decsion not to release their Gateway Reviews of the Home Office's Identity Cards Programme:
"As you will appreciate this is a particularly sensitive issue and will require very careful and considered attention before we are able to make a decision on this case."
The timeline so far:
- 1st January 2005 - Original Freedom Information Act request to the Office for Government Commerce.
- 18th January 2005 - Initial reply after only 11 working days, well within the statutory for 20 working days.
- 1st February 2005 - reply from the OGC dated 20th working day after the inital FOIA request, estimating that a further 15 working days would be required tfor a "public interest balancing exercise" i.e. after the Identity Cards Bill has finished its remaining stages in the House of Commons on Thursday 10th February 2005.
- 22nd February 2005 - receive an unsatisfactory partial disclosure from the OGC , 35 working days after the original FOIA request.
- 23rd February - ask for an Internal Review of the OGC FOIA decision.
- 24th February 2005 - OGC promise to respond within a month i.e. 24th March 2005.
- 17th March 2005 - Treasury Minister (on his way to becoming High Commisioner in South Arica) Pual Boateng answers a Parliamentary Question, a la Sir Humphrey Appleby
- 25th March 2005 - OGC Internal Review - still no substantive disclosure, apart from a small extra token one.
- 2nd April 2005 - complaint about the OGC decions to the Office of the Information Commissioner
- 10th June 2005 - reply from the Office of the Information Commissioner - awaiting the undisclosed Gateway Review documents etc.
- 2nd September 2005 - email asking if there is any progress in this complaint to the the Office of the Information Commissioner i.e. 6 months after the initial complaint to the Office of the Information Commissioner.
- 5th September 2005 -
email reply from the Office of the Information Commissioner below - still no clear timescale for a decision:
"5th September 2005 via emailDear Mr XXX,
Thank you for your e mail requesting an update on your FOI request.
I do appreciate it is some time since I updated you but I can advise
that I have been in contact with the OGC and have reviewed the
information in question.As you will appreciate this is a particularly sensitive issue and will require very careful and considered attention before we are able to make a decision on this case. Whilst I do appreciate you are keen to learn of our decision as soon as possible, it is also important that our decisions are well thought through and that they will stand up to scrutiny in the event of an appeal by either party at the Information Tribunal.
I am therefore unable to provide you with a definitive timescale as to when you will receive our decision but I will ensure that I deal with your case as quickly as possible, bearing in mind the considerations I have mentioned above.
Yours sincerely,
AAA BBB
Complaints Resolution Officer"
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