ICO serves an Information Notice on the Home Office re our complaint about the Terrorism Act 2000 s44 stop and search Authorisations

| 1 Comment

It looks as if the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has notified, and formally sent a Freedom of Information Act 2000 section 51 Information Notice to the Home Office, regarding our Complaint about or FOIA request for time,place and duration details of Terrorism Act 2000 section 44 stop and search Authorisations..

25th June 2009

CASE REFERENCE NUMBER FSnnnnnnnn

XXX

This is to advise you that I have just sent an Information Notice to the Home Office as they have not yet responded to my initial enquiries they are not yet in receipt of it but are aware that one has been posted. They have 28 days to comply with this.

[...]

Regards

[name]

Senior Complaints Officer

Our original FOIA request was made back in December 2007, and the Information Commissioner's Office has been trying to get something back from the Home Office since the end of April 2009.

It is unusual for the ICO to have to flex its few legal muscles in this way, but technically, if the Home Office does not comply within 28 days, i.e. by Friday 24th July 2009, they could be brought before a High Court Judge and face Contempt of Court proceedings under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 section 54 Failure to comply with notice

3) Where a failure to comply is certified under subsection (1), the court may inquire into the matter and, after hearing any witness who may be produced against or on behalf of the public authority, and after hearing any statement that may be offered in defence, deal with the authority as if it had committed a contempt of court.

We are not asking for any "national security" or "intelligence" related material, only for enough information to determine exactly where, when and for how long supposedly strictly temporary and geographically limited legal powers were, or are still currently in force.


1 Comment

This is getting quite exciting now. Given how bad the Home Office have been so far at responding within the require time frame, I would not be surprised if they miss this deadline.
I look forward to a conclusion, whether it be in front of a High Court (Who I expect would side with the Home Office) or with the disclosure of the areas and duration of section 44 authorisations. (Which I strongly doubt)

Leave a comment

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.

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

email: blog @spy[dot]org[dot]uk

Here is our PGP public encryption key or download it via a PGP Keyserver.

WhatDoTheyKnow.com

WhatDoTheyKnow.com - FOIA request submission and publication website from MySociety.org

Campaign Buttons

cfoi_150.jpg
Campaign for the Freedom of Information

NO2ID - opposition to the Home Office's Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID - opposition to the Home Office's Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond

Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

irrepressible_banner_03.gif
Amnesty International 's irrepressible.info campaign

Yes, Minister

Yes, Minister Series 1, Episode 1, "Open Government" First airtime BBC: 25 February 1980

"Bernard Woolley: "Well, yes, Sir...I mean, it [open government] is the Minister's policy after all."
Sir Arnold: "My dear boy, it is a contradiction in terms: you can be open or you can have government."

FOIA Links

Campaign for the Freedom of Information

Office of the Information Commissioner,
who is meant to regulate the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scottish Information Commissioner,
who similarly regulates the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002

Information Tribunal - deals with appeals against decisions by the Information Commissioners.

Freedom of Information pages - Department for Constitutional Affairs

Friends of the Earth FOIA Request Generator and links to contact details for Central Government Departments and their Publication Schemes

UK Government Information Asset Register - in theory, this should point you to the correct Government documents, but in practice...well see for yourself.

Access all Information is also logging some FOIA requests

foi.mysociety.org - prototype FOIA request submission, tracking and publication website

Blog Links

Spy Blog

UK Freedom of Information Act Blog - started by Steve Wood, now handed over to Katherine Gundersen

Your Right To Know - Heather Brooke

Informaticopia - Rod Ward

Open Secrets - a blog about freedom of information by BBC journalist Martin Rosenbaum

Panopticon blog - by Timothy Pitt-Payne and Anya Proops. Timothy Pitt-Payne is probably the leading legal expert on the UK's Freedom of Information Act law, often appearing on behlaf of the Information Commissioner's Office at the Information Tribunal.

Syndicate this site (XML):

Recent Entries

Recent Comments

  • Anon: This is getting quite exciting now. Given how bad the read more

November 2010

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        

Categories