The request is not for me to deal with.
What do I do?
If the request is not for you to deal with but for someone else within the House you must pass the request to them as quickly as possible. The deadline for the reply is calculated from the time the request was received by the House. You must ensure that the recipient has understood his or her responsibility for replying to the applicant.
The House does receive requests for information which it does not hold but which may be held by another public authority, for example, government departments. You should let the applicant know that the House does not hold the information in question but that it may be held by someone else and suggest they reapply to the other public authority. When you respond you should provide the applicant with contact details. A standard response for this can be found the Standard letters and additional guidance page.
If the request is for information held by the House of Lords you should inform the FoI Unit and pass the request to the House of Lords FoI Officer. If the request is for information held by both Houses you should consult the FoI Unit who will liaise with the Lords. If the request is for information held by the Parliamentarty Archives at the House of Lords, you should pass it to them immediately.
The request is for me to deal with
Firstly, you should advise the FoI Unit that you have received a request. In most cases it should be clear from the information sought in the request which access regime should be used. However, the FoI Unit can provide advice if you are unsure, or if the request covers more than one access regime. Even if the request mentions the wrong legislation you must consider it under the correct regime.
Both oral and written requests for information relating to the environment are covered by the EIRs. The FoI Unit can advise you of procedures under that legislation.
The procedure on dealing with requests for personal information, of which the applicant is the data subject (someone asking for information about themselves), can be found on the Data Protection page. There is then no need to follow the remaining steps of the FoI procedures. However, requests for personal information where the applicant is not the datasubject (someone asking for information about another person), and requests for anything else should be dealt with under these procedures.
For any other request for information you need to satisfy yourself that it is a valid request under the FoIA. An FoI request should be in writing (eg. letter, fax or e-mail), state the name of the applicant and an address for you to respond to (an email address is acceptable), and describe the information sought. There is no statutory requirement to issue an acknowledgement, but as a general rule if you cannot respond within 5 days then it is best to send an acknowledgement. A standard acknowledgement can be found the Standard letters and additional guidance page.
Is the information readily accessible?
The House answers thousands of requests each year for information which is readily available to the public. For the most part no consideration of the Freedom of Information Act is required because the information will be supplied as part of normal business. If the information requested is available through the House's Publication Scheme, from The Stationery Office or the Parliamentary Bookshop, or is available in any other publicly accessible way (such as from a local library), then either provide the information or advise the applicant where the information is available. Record what action has been taken. Information which is 'reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means' is exempt under FoI, even if charges apply.
The duty to provide advice and assistance
If the request does not meet the above criteria, and you are satisfied that you are the right person to deal with it, then you may need to clarify the terms of the request with the applicant. Under the Act you have a duty to provide advice and assistance to the applicant. For example, the applicant has told you that he or she has a disability and cannot supply the request in writing: you should offer to take a note of the application over the telephone and then read back the note to confirm that you have correctly recorded the request.
If the request is too vague then you may need to ask the applicant for further information to help you identify or locate the information requested. You cannot expect the applicant to have an in-depth knowledge of the House's information holdings or filing systems. Although requests must be made in writing, it is perfectly acceptable to telephone the applicant to discuss the request. The House has 20 working days in which to respond to a request for information. The clock stops once the House has sought clarification of the requests and starts again once the clarification is received.
You should not try to ascertain the motive of the request. The Freedom of Information Act is 'purpose-blind' in this respect. The purpose of the request is irrelevant in considering whether the information sought should be released.
Vexatious, repeated and campaign requests
Authorities are not expected to provide assistance to applicants whose requests are vexatious or repeated. And where the House has previously complied with a request for information which was made by any person, it is not obliged to comply with a subsequent identical or substantially similar request from that person unless a reasonable interval has elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the making of the new request. If you believe the request to be repeated, vexatious or part of a campaign you should contact the FoI Unit.
Establish whether the information is held
Under the Act the applicant is entitled to be informed in writing, subject to certain exemptions, whether the House holds the information described in the request. You will need to establish whether this is the case. You should check the relevant records and indexes and consult other staff as appropriate. If the information is not held then you should advise the applicant. In some circumstances there is no 'duty to confirm or deny' whether or not the information is held. However, in most cases, even though the public interest (see below) supports a decision not to disclose the information it may not be strong enough to refuse to confirm or deny whether the information is held. The FoI Unit can advise if you think a disclosure might be damaging.
Estimate the cost of complying with the request
If the information is held, you should estimate how long it will take to locate and retrieve the information and provide the information in the form requested. When calculating this period you cannot include time taken in considering whether the information should be disclosed. The Act does not oblige the House to comply with a request if the cost of providing the information would exceed the 'appropriate limit' which is the equivalent of 24 hours work.
If the request is too broad or too costly (because it exceeds the 'appropriate limit') then you have a duty to provide advice and assistance. Advise the applicant that the request exceeds the appropriate limit and invite him or her to narrow down the request. Alternatively, inform the applicant what information could be supplied within the limit. If the applicant does not narrow down the request the House may refuse it.
You will still need to confirm whether the information is held unless:
- to do so would itself exceed the limit or
- there is no duty to confirm or deny or
- disclosing that you hold the information would cause harm
Charging a fee
The Act gives public authorities discretion to charge a fee for complying with a request. The House has 20 working days in which to respond to a request for information. The clock stops once the House has issued a letter to the applicant informing him or her of the fee. The clock restarts when the fee is received. It is important that any decision to charge an applicant for information is reached early in the process. The applicant may ask for an internal review of the decision to levy a fee.
Assess records/information
You will have to find the information requested before you can decide whether to release it. You may have to look in a variety of places, and at paper records as well as electronic records. You should record what steps you have taken to locate the information. Once you have collected all the relevant material you must assess it for release. If you have not already done so you should check whether the information is already publicly available.
The presumption of the Act is firmly in favour of disclosure and information should only be withheld where it is genuinely essential to do so. In some cases, disclosure may be prohibited by another statute or rule of law. Otherwise you must establish how much information you are unable to disclose, if necessary line by line.
Release or withhold information
If you decide a document should not be released in its entirety then there may be some parts that should be disclosed. In these cases the exempt information will need to be blocked out or removed (this is known as redaction). Where information is withheld then under the Act you are obliged to provide reasons for your decision.
The FoIA provides 23 exemptions in all. A few of them are absolute exemptions, such as that for parliamentary privilege. The rest are subject either to a prejudice test and public interest test or a public interest test only. You should seek advice from the FoI Unit on the application of specific exemptions. The Department for Constitutional Affairs/ Ministry of Justice and the Information Commissioner websites offer useful procedural guidance and advice on the application of the exemptions. Additional House guidance can be accessed from the Standard letters and additional guidance page.
Procedure for exempting information
Just because a document has a security marking (for example management in confidence or commercial in confidence) does not mean that all the information it contains is properly exempt from disclosure. For example, information about a new policy which may have been sensitive at the time of writing may be less sensitive once the policy has been announced. The starting point is always: "how much of this information should not be released?" As part of that process you will begin to form a view of the harm likely to be caused by the disclosure of the information. Only then will you be in a position to identify the appropriate exemption.
Most of the exemptions are qualified in the sense that, although information may be exempt, there remains a duty to weigh the competing public interests of disclosure and effective public administration. The government guidance on the exemptions is available on the DCA website. If you think that an exemption might apply, you should contact the FoI Unit for advice.
Once you have identified which portions of the document should be withheld and which exemption applies, take a photocopy of the document and mark up the exempt material on the photocopy using redaction tape. Record in the margin the particular exemption to be cited. Follow a similar procedure for electronic documents.
Response
The response to a request must set out the reasons why material has been exempted and the exemption which applies. A letter of refusal also advises the applicant of the internal review procedure and the right of appeal to the Information Commissioner. The official who took the decision signs the response. A draft, and subsequently, any signed copy of a letter of refusal and any redacted information should be sent to the FoI Unit who will check that the House has complied with it obligations.
Consulting third parties
In some cases you may need to consult a third party before disclosure, for example, where their legal rights are affected; or where you believe they may be able to assist in determining whether an exemption applies. When consulting with third parties you should make it clear that the decision whether to release the information or not remains with the House. The clock does not stop even when you have to consult a third party. You could seek a view quickly by phone, by email or by fax, but you must ensure you record third parties' views.
Request is for information contained in an historical record
If you receive a request for information contained in a historical record then you should contact the Parliamentary Archives at the House of Lords, unless the records are retained in the originating department.
Under FoIA all records held by the Archives are subject to release unless they are exempt under the Act. New records passed to the Archives are deemed to be open unless the originating office specifies otherwise. Requests for access to closed files will be considered within the terms of the FoIA by the originating office. It may also be necessary for third parties to be consulted. However, many exemptions in the Act do not apply to records which are 30 years old (parliamentary privilege may continue to apply to historical records).
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