Applicants may be unhappy with the treatment they have received if, for example:
Section 12 of the Section 45 Code of Practice places a duty on public authorities to put a complaints process in place to ensure that applicants are able to ask the public authority for an internal review if they are not content with the public authority's decision on release. This provides a first review stage for the applicants. It is therefore vital that your authority has a complaints procedure, and that you are aware of its contents.
If you receive a complaint from a dissatisfied applicant you must:
It is important to be aware that the internal review stage is an opportunity to consider a case completely afresh. The review stage may also be a trigger for the involvement of senior officials, Ministers, or the Clearing House, for the first time.
Internal reviews may be conducted by a person who was not party to the original decision on whether to release information. Each Department should give active consideration to training and maintaining a list of staff of suitable seniority who can be called upon to conduct internal reviews.
Where Ministers have made a final decision on releasing information or applying exemptions, Ministers should review their decision in the light of the complaint from the applicant.
Internal reviews should not be overly bureaucratic, but must be a fair and impartial means of reviewing decisions made during the original consideration of whether to release information.
As a minimum, all internal reviews must consider the information released against the information requested and make a full review of the papers associated with the original application.
It is also best practice that the internal reviewer discuss the decisions made with the staff member, or members, who dealt with the original application in order to build a full picture as to how decisions were made.
After concluding the internal review, the reviewer should discuss their conclusions with the departmental FOI specialist in order to ensure that any internal processes which may need to be altered are fully reviewed.
The applicant must be fully informed of the outcome of the internal review.
It is important that full records are kept on the progress of the review and any outcomes as a result of the review. This will assist in any further investigations by the Information Commissioner.
Internal reviews have to be completed in a reasonable timescale. As a matter of best practice it is recommended that:
If it becomes clear at any stage of the internal review that you will not be able to meet the deadline you set, and made the applicant aware of, you should ensure that the applicant is kept fully informed. You should also set a secondary deadline by which you will respond, and every effort must be made to ensure that this is kept to.
If you consider that an internal review may exceed the set deadline you should ensure that you keep your FOIA specialist aware.
An internal review can have two outcomes:
Where the original decision is reversed the applicant must be told, and made aware of when they can expect the information originally requested to be provided to them.
Where the original request is upheld, and the internal review finds in favour of the department the applicant must be made aware of their further rights of appeal to the Information Commissioners Office. You must also ensure that full contact details for the Information Commissioners Office are provided to the applicant.
Irrespective of the outcome of the internal review, you must ensure that the final outcome of the review is recorded.
The Information Commissioner's Office is the independent statutory body which polices the operation of the Freedom of Information Act, as well as the Data Protection Act.
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the role of the Information Commissioner is as follows:
The Information Tribunal will hear appeals against notices issued by the Commissioner.