The complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office about the Foreign & Commonwealth Office's refusal to divulge the names of the former Russian Federation and British diplomats who were expelled tit for tat, over the Polonium-210 radioactive murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the contamination of many locations in London last year, has been allocated a Case Number by the ICO.
Email complaint (and paper copy sent via postal mail) sent on 9th October 2007.
Case Number allocation acknowledgement email sent by ICO on 23rd October 2007
N.B.
Due to the volume of complaints we are receiving at present it may be several months before you hear from us.
See the FCO diplomatic expulsions polonium 210 murder affair archive for the detailed request.
Party Name23rd October 2007
CASE REFERENCE NUMBER FS50179353
Dear Mr [name]
Your information request to Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Thank you for your correspondence dated 9 October 2007 in which you
make a complaint about FCO 's decision not to release the information
you requested.Your case has been allocated to one of our case resolution teams who
will contact you as soon as possible to explain how your case will be
progressed. Due to the volume of complaints we are receiving at
present it may be several months before you hear from us.(Current service standards appended below).
If you need to contact us about any aspect of your complaint about
FCO please contact our Freedom of Information Helpline on 08456 30 60
60 or 01625 54 57 45 if you would prefer to call a 'national rate'
number being sure to quote the reference number at the top of this
message.
Yours sincerely,
pp
Mr Paul Arnold
Head of Customer Service
FoI Case Reception Unit
THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE
SERVICE STANDARDSOCTOBER 2007
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is an independent body
set up to make sure that organisations handling information follow
the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
together with their associated regulations, namely, the Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.We provide advice to organisations about how to handle certain
information properly and can take action against those who refuse to
take the law seriously. We can also advise you about your rights and
in some cases, investigate complaints. For further information about
how we investigate complaints please see our "when and how to
complain" leaflets. You can download these from our website
(www.ico.gov.uk[1]) or you can ask our Helpline to send you copies on
08456 30 60 60 or 01625 545 745 if you would prefer to call a national
rate number.OUR CURRENT RESPONSE TIMES
Some matters are more complex than others. Below is some
information indicating how long it currently takes us to deal with
the complaints, enquiries and telephone calls we receive. By "deal
with" we mean "responding" to enquiries, "providing the outcome" to a
complaint and "answering telephone calls." All reference to "days"
means calendar days.Complaints and Enquiries covered by the Data Protection Act or the
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.70% of all casework in this area is dealt with within 30 days, 92%
is dealt with within 90 days and 99% within 180 days of receipt.
Complaints and Enquiries covered by the Freedom of Information Act
or Environmental Information Regulations.58% of all casework in this area is dealt with within 30 days, 64%
is dealt with within 90 days, 69% within 180 days and 81% within 365
days of receipt.Calls to our Telephone Helpline
Callers currently wait, on average 45 seconds to speak to an
advisor.Some calls are more complex than others. Although most questions
will be answered by the first person you speak to, we may sometimes
need to transfer your call to someone better placed to deal with your
enquiry. If for any reason we need to call you back we will try to do
this the same day where possible or at a time more convenient for you.OUR NOTIFICATION DEPARTMENT
If you have submitted a new Notification, requested a change to an
existing Notification or sent us a Notification renewal, our
Notification Department will contact you as soon as your request has
been processed. Our current response time is 14 calendar days for
all Notification services.HOW WE WILL TREAT YOU
However you choose to contact us, we will always aim to be helpful
and to treat you with politeness and consideration. We ask that you
treat us in the same way.LETTERS, FAXES OR EMAILS COPIED TO OUR OFFICE
All our service standards and commitments only apply to
correspondence sent directly to us. WE DO NOT ROUTINELY RESPOND TO
CORRESPONDENCE THAT IS ONLY COPIED TO US.
COMPLAINTS ABOUT OUR SERVICEIf you are unhappy with any aspect of the service we have provided,
please see our case review and service complaints policy. This is
available from our website, or you can ask our Helpline to send you a
copy on 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to call a
national rate number.
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Links:
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[1] http://www.ico.gov.uk/
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