From: Julian Huppert MP <****> To: Ian Jackson <****> Subject: Re: Charity Commission FOI obstructiveness Date: Fri, 9 May 2014 11:49:51 +0100 >From the Office of Julian Huppert Member of Parliament for Cambridge House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA Telephone **** Email **** Mr Ian W Jackson 9 Montgomery Road Cambridge CB4 2EQ ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk 9 May 2014 Dear Ian, Thank you for your e-mail of 22 April. Contact has been made with Liam Carroll, Complaints and FOI Manager at the Charity Commission (CC). Mr. Carroll apologised for the delay in providing the documents you requested – as you pointed out in your correspondence with him, the Charity Commission has a statutory duty to respond within 20 days and, as such, they should have provided the documents by the end of March. Mr. Carroll explained that, due to the nature of your request, it has taken the Charity Commission longer to provide the documents than usual. The problem is that the reports you asked for cannot be passed on to you immediately due to legal reasons concerning data protection laws and the protection of personal information. If the Charity Commission were to pass the documents on to you without first checking whether they have the permission to do so with the relevant third parties, they could potentially be liable to civil action. I’m confident that there are genuine reasons as to why Mr Carroll cannot provide you the documents immediately; I don’t believe the organisation is being deliberately difficult. However, I appreciate that it is frustrating to have to wait for such a long period of time for the documents you have asked for. I have therefore asked that Mr. Carroll work as efficiently as possible towards meeting your request and I have asked that he keep me informed with any further developments. Please do contact me if you encounter any further difficulties with the Charity Commission. I hope this is helpful. Yours sincerely, Julian Huppert Member of Parliament for Cambridge While Julian Huppert will treat as confidential any personal information which you pass on, he will normally allow staff and authorised volunteers to see it if this is needed to help advise you. The MP may pass on all or some of this information to agencies such as the DWP, HMRC or the local Council if this is necessary to help with your case. Julian Huppert may wish to write to you from time to time to keep you informed on issues which you may find of interest. Please let him know if you do not wish to be contacted for this purpose. On 22 April 2014 16:43, Ian Jackson <****>wrote: > (resent with my full address) > > Summary: > > The Charity Commission are wasting the time of their staff by > being obstructive about public access to already-published past > reports. > > The Charity Commission have a policy of deleting all their > investigation reports from their own website after a period of 6 > months.[2] > > I think this is ridiculous. I set about using What Do They Know to > build a public archive of all the previously published reports. (In > part so that someone who wants a particular report can find it right > away rather than having to FOI it themswelves and wait 4 weeks.) > > The Commission's staff have now been instructed to try to find reasons > not to reply to my requests. Most recently, instead of simply > replying with the reports, the staff have been instructed to search > the internet for copies of the deleted reports, in the hope that the > Commission could rely on the "available by other means" FOI exception. > > In case you think I am making this up: > > https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/archived_inquiry_reports_for_200_2#incoming-503953 > > This is all a collossal waste of time. As I understand it all of > these reports are still in their website CMS. What they should do is > change the CMS not to retain them on the public website. > > Instead, they are now facing an investigation by the ICO into my > complaint about their obstructiveness. > > Is there anything you can do ? Perhaps you could publicly ask why the > Commission are wasting their scarce resources this way. > > (Incidentally, the Public Accounts Committee were very critical of the > Charity Commission in their last report[1].) > > Thanks, > Ian. > (Ian Jackson, 9 Montgomery Road, CB4 2EQ.) > > [1] > http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/publication-of-report-tax-reliefs-on-charitable-donations/ > > [2] I discovered this policy when a particular charity was in the news > and I wanted to know whether the Charity Commission had investigated > them. No-one was able to see the report in time for it to make any > difference for the reporting of the controversy. >