ICO Disclosure Log – Response IRQ0648490 Further to our acknowledgement of 4 October we can now provide you with a response to your information request of 28 September for which you provided further clarification on 4 October 2016. Request You originally asked “I’d like some stats on planning related FOI and EIR requests to the new councils since the 11 took over the planning function”. You then confirmed “I’m interested in complaints made to your office regarding District Council Planning matters relating to each of the eleven new councils since they took over the responsibility for planning on 1st April 2015”. As you know from our acknowledgement we have dealt with your request for information as a request under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Our response We understand you are requesting information about the following 11 councils: Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council Ards and North Down Borough Council Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Belfast City Council Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Derry City and Strabane District Council Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Mid and East Antrim Borough Council Mid-Ulster District Council Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Please see attached a csv file showing the information you have requested. In the CSV file we are providing you with a list of complaints about the aforementioned councils which we handled under the FOIA/EIR for the period from 1 April 2015 to the date you supplied clarification of your request (4 October 2016). We record information about our casework in our electronic case management system (known as CMEH). A search of our records has identified 24 items of casework created. For each item of casework we have provided you with case type, case outcome, whether or not the request related to ‘planning matters’ and where it does, a brief description of the request. It is important to note that the nature of each complaint is not a searchable attribute on CMEH. In order to establish whether the subject of the request was related to planning we manually checked all the complaints we handled under FOIA/EIR about the 11 councils. We have extracted this data from CMEH to enable us to respond to your request. We predominantly use this system to track and progress individual cases. We don’t use this data in isolation to decide whether regulatory action is appropriate in any particular case, but we might use it to help identify potential trends or to see the size and progress of our caseload. The data provided reflects the data on the date it was extracted and can be subject to change over time. Please note that where a complaint is brought to us relating to the processing of a request under the FOIA or EIR, the Commissioner will make a decision as to whether the legislation has been applied correctly in each case. We routinely publish these ‘decision notices’ on our website. However, the closed cases identified in this request show 3 case outcomes: Closed – Insufficient evidence – where the requestor has not provided enough information for us to consider making a decision. Closed – No internal review – where the requestor has not exhausted the public authorities’ internal review/complaints process before bringing a complaint to us. Closed – withdrawn informally resolved – where an informal resolution can be reached we will ask the requestor to withdraw their application for a decision from the Commissioner, meaning that a formal decision is not made. More information on how we deal with complaints is published on our website. Also please note that some of the case reference numbers are duplicated. This is where the ‘casework type’ on the same case has changed. For example a case may have been reopened if further evidence is supplied or an internal review is completed so that we can progress it. Finally, it may be important to note that the obligation imposed on the Commissioner under the legislation is for a decision to be made as to whether the request for recorded information has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the legislation, not to comment on the content of the information supplied by a public authority in a response (unless a requestor believes the information may have been altered, defaced, blocked, erased, destroyed or concealed with an intent to prevent disclosure). This concludes our response to your request. .