Today is the deadline for Cardiff Council to respond to my Freedom of Information Act request about their use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Unfortunately my inbox is bare and the question of whether Cardiff is a Clouseau Council remains unanswered. I think that’s probably illegal, but I guess I should be prepared to indulge a small delay since they’ve had other things on their mind recently. I don’t recall seeing candidates for the role of “Freedom of Information Officer” on the ballot paper though… and just why is the Strategic Planning and Environment department responding to an FoI request about RIPA anyway? *scratches head*
UPDATE 2008/05/14 23:15:
Shortly after this post was published, I received an email from Cardiff Council:
Dear Mr King
I refer to your request submitted on 15th April. I regret that there has been considerable disruption to our FOI service as a result of an accident to our FOI Officer on the weekend of 19 April, as a result of which he is likely to be off work for several months.
I assume this message was auto-generated by some kind of script, arriving as it did 37 minutes after the legal deadline for a response, and signed as it was by the “information manager”. I’ve just pinged back a reply to ask when they now expect to be able to send me the information I requested, given the (clearly unfortunate) circumstances.
On a personal note: there have been too many people around here suffering serious injuries lately. Look after yourselves, everyone – I don’t want to hear about any more.