(01-12-2010 23:44 )MeTarzan Wrote: The only issue you haven't covered is time. FoI themselves don't include enforceable dates (at least as far as I understand it) - I think the Act cites "...a reasonable timeframe" for the respondent to satisfy the request (or provides grounds for refusal or partial satisfaction).
In practice, this means citizens can wait months for a response to a FoI request.
It might work differently for FoI requests, but standard service levels for responding to correspondence/emails, etc in most departments are pretty snappy, as indeed they are for most companies dealing with data subject to the DPA - in our old office, we had three working days to issue a written acknowledgement of receipt and a further ten working days (ie; two weeks in practice) to provide a proper written response. The same applied for complaint procedures.. although I will concede that the whole affair did not need to be wrapped up in that period of time - we were simply duty bound to keep the customer informed at such stages. However, the last statement should not be taken as indication that such matters were treated lightly or ignored until they went away.
All public offices are subject to assessment based on meeting performance targets, and service levels are one of the major ways used to judge performance.
The following is taken from monitor-nhsft.gov.uk's document on handling correspondence, by way of an example, and covers expected service levels in respect of freedom of Information:
2d. Response times
The response times for responding to correspondence are listed below.
If it is not possible to reply in these timescales, because of the complex nature of the
enquiry, a holding reply (letter or email) must be sent, or a follow up telephone call made.
This must explain the reason for the delay, and give an estimated date when an answer
will be provided (which should be recorded in the correspondence log).
Receipt of emails should be acknowledged on the same working day they are received.
More closely on-topic, however, yes it seems that Bang Babes refuses to die, and I wait to see what will happen next.
Will the watchdog try to bite again? Will they have legal grounds to do so? Will Bang simply use this as a rearguard or stopgap while they prepare a new product? Or are BangMedia simply too stupid to have even thought of that?
Tune in next week for the next interminable instalment of "What Bang Did Next"...Same Bang-time, same Bang-channel (unless they hijack another channel)