All this FOIA stuff is very new, so here is our first attempt at getting the Information Commissioner to review an FOIA request, in this case the saga of the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Reviews of the Home Office Identity Cards Programme.
You can only complain to the Information Commissioner once the public authoritiy's internal review process has been exhausted.
FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
copy sent by email to: foi-enquiries@ico.gsi.gov.uk
Friday 1st April 2005
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to formally ask the Information Commissioner to exercise his powers under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, to review the extent of the public interest disclosure which the Office of Government Commerce has chosen to apply to my FOIA request for the OGC Gateway Reviews pertaining to the Home Office's Identity Cards scheme.
The Government's compulsory centralised biometric National Identity Register database and SmartCard ID Card plans have far reaching consequences for privacy, data protection and civil liberties, something which Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner has expressed doubts on in evidence before the Home Affairs Committee. The project looks set to involve the expenditure of several billion pounds of public money.
I attach my original FOIA request, of the 3rd of January 2005, which was not complied with within 20 working days.
A further 15 working days were taken up with a "public interest balancing exercise".
The disclosure, such as it was, arrived on the 22nd February, but contained no actual details from the Gateway Reviews, only a vague general description of the project which had already been made public in the preface to the Identity Cards consultation document. Where is the list of project assumptions, the acknowledged risks, and the high level outline of the project architecture ?
I requested an Internal Review, which took another month, but which still tries to maintain, that somehow the whole machinery of Government would fail if these, by now out of date, Gateway Reviews were to be made public.
I cannot see why, subject to keeping private the identities of the individual consultants and civil servants who conducted the Gateway Review of this multi-billion pound project, publishing these Reviews is somehow not in the public interest.
This seems to be entirely against the stated "culture of openness" which the Freedom of Information Act is supposed to have instilled in Government.
Please contact me if you need any further details.
I look forward to your Decision Notice within the next 28 days,
yours sincerely
XXX[address]
