Speaking clock (2021)

Response

Please note initially that whilst the House of Commons and the House of Lords are separate public authorities in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) is a joint service providing information and communications technology services for both Houses of Parliament. Therefore, the information below covers all users of the parliamentary network e.g. MPs, Members of the House of Lords, their staff, staff of the House Administrations and non-parliamentary network users participating in parliamentary business. Whilst the House of Commons cannot answer on behalf of any other public authority, information in this response may overlap with information held by the House of Lords.

1. Could you please tell me how many calls have been registered from the Houses of Parliament to the Speaking Clock phone line since May 2015?
   Some information to respond to your request is held by the House of Commons.
   The House’s third party supplier retains information about phone calls for three years and we can provide this information. In the period 4 February 2018 to the date of your request 4 February 2021, there were 517 calls from Parliament to the Speaking Clock.
   Phone call logs from before 4 February 2018 has been deleted by our supplier in line with the House’s Authorised Records Disposal Practice (ARDP) which is available on our parliamentary pages.
   However, the House retains some information on this topic which we collected for a previous FoI request in 2016. This includes calls to the Speaking Clock in the period 1 May 2015 to 13 June 2016. Whilst the House of Commons holds this information, it is also already available publicly. This information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 21(1) and (2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which removes a public authority from the obligation to provide access to information which is already in the public domain. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
   However, it may help you to know that information relevant to your request can be found in a publication of a request on our FOI pages.
2. Could you tell me how long these calls lasted and the number of calls registered in this time frame?
   We have interpreted the second half of this question, “the number of call registered in this time frame” to be a repeat of your first question above, and so our response to that also applies here.
   Information on the length of calls is not recorded and so information to respond to your request is not held by the House of Commons.