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: UK Freedom of Information Act Blog

By Katherine Gundersen

BUAV decision
The Information Tribunal's decision in the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection's appeal (see post below) in relation to information about animal experimentation licences has now been published. In the decision, the Tribunal makes the following comments about delay by the Home Office and the Information Commissioner's Office:

This decision is being issued approximately three years after the date of the original request for information on which it is based...The Tribunal?s own decision to deal with the Appeal in two separate hearings has unfortunately contributed to the overall delay in reaching a conclusion but it is extremely unfortunate that the process for dealing with the request within the Home Office took eight weeks, the internal review of that refusal a further five months and the Information Commissioner?s investigation of the BUAV?s complaint a further twenty one months. Even allowing for the difficulties which the Information Commissioner?s office faced during the early months of the operation of the FOIA we have to record our disappointment that the first letter from the Information Commissioner to the Home Office notifying it that a complaint had been received was not sent until almost a year after the complaint had been submitted, and his detailed investigation did not begin until a further 4 months had expired.

Read the full decision.

Full post as published by UK Freedom of Information Act Blog on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).