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Complaining to ombudsman feature requirements
Martyn Dewar edited this page Jul 13, 2022
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This page is designed to capture functional requirements for allowing users to escalate a complaint to an information rights regulator (e.g. the UK Information Commissioner, Scottish Information Commissioner in Scotland).
- Currently, where a response is overdue the site sends a reminder email to the requester. The proposed new feature is that at this point the requester should be able to press a button to "Let the [name of the appropriate regulator] know that [name the public authority] has not responded to this request on time."
- The feature should not exist for requests made to authorities that are not subject to such regulation (e.g. in the UK bodies not subject to FOI appear on the site).
- Pressing the button would display a standardised email (that the user cannot edit) and an option to press "send" or "cancel".
- The email would go to the regulator cc the public authority and would appear on the thread just as with all other correspondence
- The email would include a link to the request in question.
- The feature would not be available if the request was hidden.
- The feature should only be available if the current request status is awaiting_response
- Sending the email should trigger a change of status to a new status called "the regulator has been informed that this request is overdue"
- All correspondence from the regulator should appear on the thread using a different background colour to that used for correspondence from the requester and that used for correspondence from the public authority.
- The requester should be allowed to correspond with the regulator once the regulator responds (or if the regulator fails to respond within twenty working days)
- The proposed feature is to allow complaints to the regulator to be made through the site in the same way as site currently handles internal review requests and related correspondence.
- The feature should not be available unless the request is in or has already gone through the awaiting 'internal_review' status.
- The feature should not be available if the request status is any of the following: not_foi, vexatious, error_message, user_withdrawn.
- The feature should not exist for requests made to authorities tagged "foi_no", these bodies are not subject to FOI.
- However, the feature should exist for requests made to authorities tagged "eir_only", as these bodies are subject to the Environmental Information Regulations (Regulation 11 EIR 2004, Regulation 16 EI(S)R)
- The feature should not be available if the request was hidden.
- Sending the email should trigger a change of status to a new status called "waiting for a decision from the regulator".
- All correspondence from the regulator should appear on the thread using a different background colour to that used for correspondence from the requester and that used for correspondence from the public authority.
- The requester should be allowed to correspond with the regulator on the request thread from this point forward.
- In most cases in the UK the name of regulator would be the Information Commissioner's Office. Some bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and regulated by the Scottish Information Commissioner. All or almost all of these bodies are tagged with "scotland".
- "foi_no", is the tag used on WhatDoTheyKnow for bodies not subject to FOI. Other Alaveteli sites may use a different tag.
- The ICO's email address for complaints is: icocasework@ico.org.uk.
- The Scottish Information Commissioner's email address is: enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info.
- Some requests will have "gone_postal" meaning the regulator cannot see the full correspondence trail.
- Schools sometimes get longer than twenty working days to deal with FOI requests.
- You cannot appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner in certain exceptional cases(if your request was to a procurator fiscal, in some cases, the Lord Advocate, or the Scottish Information Commissioner themselves.)