Today I appealed against the DETI NI's refusal to grant my FOI request for details of the BT 100% broadband contract.
Here is the content of the appeal:
To await the response.
Here is the content of the appeal:
Subject: Appeal against decision on FOl 062 Dear Trevor, Thank you for your letter of 2 November 2005. It has been a number of years since we last spoke. I hope all is well with you. I write to appeal your decision to withhold full responses on questions 1 and 3 of my request. Please understand this email as an official request for an Internal Review of your decision. I do not believe that DETINI decision to withhold is either within the letter nor the spirit of the Law (FOI Act 2000). Further, Information Commissioner guidance on the law which has been available to Public bodies for some time (well before your signing of the March 2004 contract with BT) specifically on confidentiality clauses as also been ignored. A blanket confidentiality clause does not absolve the department of its statutory obligations and the Information Commissioner has stated in the guidance that he would look unfavourably on such blanket clauses. You should also be aware that general confidentiality and the excuse of "likely to prejudice BT's commercial interests" may not apply for companies who are regarded as a Monopoly. BT has the country's largest recognised monopoly. The Information Commissioner has also stated this consideration in the published Awareness Guidelines. I do not believe that BT, as a monopoly, can possibly be commercially damaged by the release of any information. Finally, I do not see any evidence of the Public Interest Test which I believe you are obligated to complete. This information has undoubted public interest. The department has spent tax payers money on a contract with BT. I quote from your department's own press release: "This vitally important contract will deliver the Government's broadband vision of a fully connected Northern Ireland. In turn it will help make Northern Ireland more competitive." - Ian Pearson, MP "This will ensure that Northern Ireland is a seriously attractive area for existing company expansion and new inward investment." - Bill Murphy, BT "Broadband access to all rural areas will be a tremendous boost. Many rural communities have already been campaigning to bring Broadband to their locality. This demonstrates the demand for the service and having it available to every household in Northern Ireland will ensure that a rural /urban divide does not open up." - John Gilliland, UFU http://www.detini.gov.uk/cgi-bin/morenews?utilid=433 The department itself recognises this contract of vital importance to the Northern Ireland economy. Finally, I note that the department has not yet updated the PDF document on how to make a FOI request to include the correct email address. I was assured at the time that this would be taken care of immediately (during a telephone call from Ian Boyd). - http://www.detini.gov.uk/cgi-bin/downutildoc?id=853 I am also concerned that during the phone call from Ian Boyd that he seemed to want to know, a) who I was, b) was I a competitor to BT, and c) to what purpose I wanted the information. None of this information is relevant to any FOI request. To Ian's credit he did correct himself and said that it should not matter, however - he should not have asked. For the record - I am not in competition with BT or even in the Internet industry any longer and have not been for a number of years. Thank you. Paul Gregg |
To await the response.
![General [rss]](http://pgregg.com/mt-static//images/status_icons/feed.gif){kind=icon}
This is very interesting indeed. Since I did not research DETNI before my previous reply I was unaware of what they were, now I am, I am confident you could persue this to the highest level and force a release of the information you are requesting. Keep us posted!
Since DETI NI said they had no record of my original email and had nothing from their logs I'm pasting this mail delivery log here just to show their systems received it.
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792825500 starting delivery 339789: msg 847926 to remote tre
vor.forsythe@detini.gov.uk
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792828500 status: local 1/3 remote 3/20
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792830500 starting delivery 339790: msg 847926 to remote foi
@detini.gov.uk
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792833500 status: local 1/3 remote 4/20
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792835500 starting delivery 339791: msg 847926 to remote ian
.boyd@detini.gov.uk
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792838500 status: local 1/3 remote 5/20
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792854500 starting delivery 339792: msg 847926 to remote Alb
erta.pauley@detini.gov.uk
2005-11-09 16:28:39.792857500 status: local 1/3 remote 6/20
2005-11-09 16:28:42.398670500 delivery 339789: success: 145.229.156.65_accepted_
message./Remote_host_said:_250_LINDA:_Message_accepted_for_delivery/
2005-11-09 16:28:42.398848500 status: local 1/3 remote 5/20
2005-11-09 16:28:42.399544500 delivery 339790: success: 145.229.156.65_accepted_
message./Remote_host_said:_250_LINDA:_Message_accepted_for_delivery/
2005-11-09 16:28:42.399700500 status: local 1/3 remote 4/20
2005-11-09 16:28:42.614311500 delivery 339791: success: 145.229.156.65_accepted_
message./Remote_host_said:_250_LINDA:_Message_accepted_for_delivery/
2005-11-09 16:28:42.614478500 status: local 1/3 remote 3/20
2005-11-09 16:28:42.615562500 delivery 339792: success: 145.229.156.65_accepted_
message./Remote_host_said:_250_LINDA:_Message_accepted_for_delivery/