Hi All.

Im currently preparing a complaint to go to Charles Clarke, Professional Standards at Herts, the Info Commissoner, Cheif Constable of herts, the Herts Police Authority and a couple of media people (five/C4).

I did phone the IC the other day, and apparently there has been no end of complaints about herts police and that any new ones will just be bundled together with the existing bulk of them.

What I need is everyone who has sent an FOI to any police force in the UK (or that is covered by FOI) to list here the following:-

Which Police Force:
Date FOI submitted:
Date Ackowledged by police force (if):
How long to respond (if):
How many times did they extend 20 day deadline (if) AND did they tell you before the original deadline had expired or several days after:
How many times did you follow the FOI up (if no response in 20 working days):

I am preparing a document to proove how incompetent herts FOI department is and in order to do this I will compare like for like, with a table of FOI responses.
Obviously herts will be at the bottom from what I gather from other comments in this forum.

Police Force: Devon & Cornwall
Date FOI Sent (via email): 31/08/2005
Acknowledgement Rec'd: 02/09/2005
Date FOI received: 29/09/2005

From my estimation they are a day or so over from when FOI sent, but exactly on 20days going by the date they acknowledged FOI.

I personally allow a few days anyhow because they may not have read the email on the day that I sent it and therefore allow a day or so for this.

The FOI reply answered my questions fully so no further action was necessary.

Police Force: Thames Valley Police
Date FOI Sent (via email): 23/08/2005
Acknowledgement Rec'd: 02/09/2005
Date FOI received: 21/09/2005

From my estimation they are a day or so over from when FOI sent, but within the 20days going by the date they acknowledged FOI as there was such a gap between date I sent and date they acknowledged.

They applied an exemption to the release of their geographical number on 21/09/2005 in their reply.

Requested internal review on same date, 21/09/2005.

On the 23/09/2005 (yes only 2 days after), my internal review request was completed and the exemption was upheld.

I haven't got round to taking this to IC yet but I plan on doing it this week.

That's all for me regarding police forces.

UPDATE: I've just finished my letter to the IC and will post it tomorrow.

Hertfordshire Constabulary Timeline:

2005:
June 22 FOI request sent by email
July 20 Reminder sent to Herts police with copy of original FOI request
July 22 Complaint sent to Information Commissioner
Aug 1 Acknowledgement from IC (we're busy but we're working on it etc)
Oct 11 Complaint sent to Hertfordshire Police Authority and Independent Police Complaints Commission with copy to Hertfordshire Constabulary
Oct 11 Reply from Suzy Johnson, Hertfordshire Constabulary, indicating original FOI request never received
Oct 11 FOI request submitted once again, directly to Ms Johnson
Oct 11 Reply from HPA indicating Professional Standards department, police HQ, would investigate

Despite Ms Johnson stating that she would acknowledge the request of Oct 11, nothing received to date.

For the avoidance of doubt, all dates refer to Eastern Daylight Time.

Thames Valley Police Timeline:

2005:
July 20 FOI request sent by email
July 21 Acknowledgement by TVP of above request
Aug 11 FOI response sent, applying exemptions to several parts
Aug 22 Request for internal review submitted - to look at exemptions applied
Sept 5 Acknowledgement of above review request indicating a reply by Dec 5
Sept 5 Response to above indicating Dec 5 timeframe is unacceptable
Sept 21 Internal review response submitted, upholding exemptions
Sept 21 Acknowledgement of receipt of review and statement that this would be taken up with IC
Sept 29 Complaint lodged with IC
Oct 5 Acknowledgement from IC

For the avoidance of doubt, all dates refer to Eastern Daylight Time.

Thanks for that.

I have entered that information into my report and herts still comes out bottom of the bottom in terms of response times and breech of S.10.

Remember PITO would also be classed as a Police Force for this report.

Which Police Force: Herts
Date FOI submitted: 31-Mar-05
Date Acknowledged by police force (if): can't find, but reasonably quickly
How long to respond (if): 2 months - letter dated 31 May
How many times did they extend 20 day deadline (if) Never - just ignored it and apologised when they got round to answering
AND did they tell you before the original deadline had expired or several days after: Neither!
How many times did you follow the FOI up (if no response in 20 working days): I failed there - sorry!

And just to add
Review panel held - 27 September
Review panel response (holding letter) - letter dated October 4
Review panel response (proper one, this time by email) - October 17, but still not answering some of the questions asked (not yet certain whether this comprehension failure is of the questions or the obligation....!)

Updated Oct 18, 2005

Hertfordshire Constabulary Timeline:

2005:
June 22 FOI request sent by email  
July 20 Reminder sent to Herts police (HC) with copy of original FOI request
July 22 Complaint sent to Information Commissioner  
Aug 1 Acknowledgement from IC (we're busy but we're working on it etc)  
Oct 11 Complaint sent to Hertfordshire Police Authority and Independent Police Complaints Commission with copy to Hertfordshire Constabulary
Oct 11 Reply from Suzy Johnson, Hertfordshire Constabulary, indicating original FOI request never received
Oct 11 FOI request submitted once again, directly to Ms Johnson
Oct 11 Reply from HPA indicating Professional Standards department, police HQ, would investigate
Oct 12 Request for acknowledgement from HC
Oct 12 Request from Suzy Johnson to resubmit FOI request
Oct 12 FOI request resubmitted to Ms Johnson
Oct 12 Confirmation of receipt letter sent by HC
Oct 12 Refusal letter issued by HC (Vexatious or Repeated Request, Section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act)
Oct 12 Acknowledgement of receipt of refusal letter
Oct 12 Request for internal review (CC Ofcom, Home Office, my MP, HPA, IPCC) giving twelve grounds for appeal
Oct 13 Acknowledgement of above by Suzy Johnson - case now transferred to Information Manager
Oct 13 Information Manager review letter provided
Oct 14 Letter received from Chair of HPA stating that he would review my points of appeal
Oct 14 "Thank you" email sent to Chair of HPA
Oct 17 Letter from IPCC stating that my complaint had been allocated to a caseworker.

For the avoidance of doubt, all dates refer to Eastern Daylight Time.

wrote on Oct 18^th, 2005 at 2:22pm:

Oct 17 Letter from IPCC stating that my complaint had been allocated to a caseworker.

Which includes this at the end:

<<
If you would like to speak directly to a caseworker, please call 08453
002 002 and press 1 at the prompt.
>>

It couldn't get any better.