More delays at the Information Commissioner's Office - HMRC special categories of tax payer

Yet Another Twelve Weeks gone !

Why is the Information Commissioner's Office so permanently under resourced ?

Note that there is not even a guesstimate of when they are going to even allocated the complaint to a case worker,let alone when they will make's decision.

From: casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk
To: {email address]
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:01:06 -0800
* Party Name

19 March 2009
CASE REFERENCE NUMBER FS50216168

Dear [name]

We last wrote to you on 18 DECEMBER 2008 about the Freedom of Information complaint you made to the Information Commissioner. This complaint concerns the handling of the request you made to the Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs on 28 January 2008. This request concerns the special categories used by HMRC, for whom security is a higher priority.

I am writing on behalf of the Police, Justice and Taxation Team (Team 2) to inform you that regretfully your case is still waiting to be allocated to a case officer. Until your case is allocated we are not able to provide any substantive information about the progress or
content of your case

The office has been dealing with a very high volume of complaints since January 2005. This has created a significant back log of cases which are being addressed as quickly as possible, though in many instances resolving those cases is proving to be a very lengthy
process. We appreciate that this situation is both undesirable and extremely frustrating. However, we would like to assure you that every possible effort is being made to alleviate the delays and we will allocate your case once it gets to the front of our queue.

Please accept my apologies for the delays you will experience prior to this case being allocated. We will write to you again every twelve weeks to inform you of the status of your complaint in relation to Team 2's queue and we will notify you when a case worker is assigned to it.

You can respond by replying to this email to mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk[1] quoting reference FS50216168.

Yours sincerely

David McNeil

Complaints Officer

Team 2 - Police, Justice and Taxation

THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE
____________________________________________________________________

The ICO's vision is a society where information rights and responsibilities are respected by all.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email (and any attachment), please inform the sender by return email and destroy all copies. Unauthorised access, use, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted.

Communication by internet email is not secure as messages can be intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to unrelated third parties would be likely to cause you distress. If you have an
enquiry of this nature please provide a postal address to allow us to communicate with you in a more secure way. If you want us to respond by email you must realise that there can be no guarantee of privacy. Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the Information Commissioner's Office for reasons of security and for monitoring internal compliance with the office policy on staff use. Email monitoring or blocking software may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you
write or forward is within the bounds of the law.

The Information Commissioner's Office cannot guarantee that this message or any attachment is virus free or has not been intercepted and amended. You should perform your own virus checks.
__________________________________________________________________
http://www.ico.gov.uk or email: mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 01625 545 700 Fax: 01625 524 510

Links:
------
[1] mailto:operationssupport@ico.gsi.gov.uk

About this blog

This United Kingdom based blog has been spawned from Spy Blog, and is meant to provide a place to track our Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests to United Kingdom Government and other Public Authorities.

If you have suggestions for other FOIA requests,  bearing in mind the large list of exemptions, then email them to us, or use the comments facility on this blog, and we will see  what we can do, without you yourself having to come under the direct scrutiny of  "Sir Humphrey Appleby" or his minions.

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Blog Links

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