Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) Outcome of Internal Review
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www.justice.gov.uk /
Mr Michael Flood
26 May 2011 / Our ref: FOI/70576 (70111)/GM
Dear Mr Flood
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) – Outcome of Internal Review
Thank you for your Internal Review request dated 19 May 2011 regarding a Freedom of Information request in which you asked the following:
“How much was received under monies taken as proceeds of crime applications by HMCS in 2010 and was any of this money in respect of civil cash recovery under POCA?”
The purpose of an Internal Review is to assess how the Freedom of Information request was handled in the first instance and to determine whether the original decision given to you was correct.
Your request has been passed to me as I have responsibility for answering requests, which relate to data in Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS). HMCTS is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and is responsible for the administration of the 284 magistrates' courts, the 91 Crown Court centres, 210 county courts, the High Court, Court of Appeal and Tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
I have reassessed your case and after careful consideration I have concluded the initial response sent to you resulted from a misunderstanding by our team in HMCTS; there is in fact information available. Although I confirm it is not possible to identify the value of receipts arising from civil cash recovery under POCA. I wish to apologise for this oversight. An explanation of my decision follows.
Your request for internal review was assigned to me on the 23 May. An internal communication was sent to colleagues responsible for data relating to cash recovery. Following various leads and advice; HMCTS were able to identify the following information relating to confiscation orders receipts.
It was unknown at the time of your original request that HMCTS held this level of detail. At that time our understanding was that this information was held only by the Home Office. The data that we have obtained is as follows:
Confiscation Order Receipts in HMCTS
Drug Trafficking Act / Criminal Justice Act 1988 / Proceeds of Crime Act / Total2010 / £000 / £000 / £000 / £000
England & Wales / 5,995 / 10,253 / 73,422 / 89,670
In connection with the above; HMCTS received income from the asset recovery incentivisation scheme totalling £10,985,000 from the Home Office, equivalent to 12.25% of confiscation order receipts collected by HMCTS in calendar year 2010.
Our central data systems and financial management system do not record whether receipts have been obtained as a result of civil cash recovery under POCA.
To establish the value of receipts arising from civil cost recovery under POCA would require review of each case file for which there were receipts in 2010. This task would exceed the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information Act. I would refer you to Section 12(2) of the FOIA, where it exempts a public authority from its obligations under Section 1(1) - the duty to confirm if the information being requested is held, if to provide that confirmation alone would exceed the cost limit. The appropriate limit for the central government is set at £600, which represents one person spending 3.5 working days (calculated at £25 per hour) in locating, extracting and collating the information being requested, or, for the purposes of Section 12(2), determining if the information being requested is held. We estimate that it will take us more than 3.5 days to ascertain whether this information is held by the Department. Whilst you could narrow the scope in order to try to bring it within the cost limit, for example by requesting information for a particular year from one particular court. However, you need to be aware that any revised request submitted may be subject to the application of an exemption or the appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information Act. For example a revised request may evoke some other exemptions such as Sections 32 (court records) and 40 (personal information) of the FOIA.
You can find out more about Section 12 by reading the extract from the Act and some guidance points we consider when applying this exemption, attached at the end of this letter. You can also find more information by reading the full text of the Act, available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12 and further guidance http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/foi-exemptions-guidance.htm.
As a result of my investigation, I am satisfied that there is no recorded central information held on civil case recovery under POCA which could be provided to you in response to your Freedom of Information request.
I once again apologise that our original response was incorrect, but I am pleased that we were able to provide you with some of the information you requested.
You have the right to appeal this Internal Review if you think it is incorrect. Details can be found in the ‘How to Appeal’ section attached at the end of this letter.
Yours sincerely
G Mehmet
Gulsun Mehmet
HMCTS Business Information Division
How to Appeal
Information Commissioner’s Office
If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Commissioner is an independent regulator who has the power to direct us to respond to your request differently, if he considers that we have handled it incorrectly.
You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Internet address: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx
EXPLANATION OF INFORMATION HELD FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE ACT
We have provided below additional information for information held for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act. We have included some of the guidance we use when considering requests for information. I hope you find this information useful.
Is the information 'held' for the purposes of the Act?
A person may request any information 'held' in any recorded form by a public authority (or held by another on behalf of a public authority).
If the requester is asking for an opinion on an issue or asking for information that is not already held to be created, this is not a Freedom of Information Act request.
Information covered by the Act
All recorded information 'held' by a public authority is within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. It includes files, letters, emails and photographs and extends to closed files and archived material.
Recorded information
The right of access applies to information recorded in any form. This includes:
· information that is held electronically (such as on a laptop computer or an electronic records management system)
· information that is recorded on paper (such as a letter, memorandum or papers in a file)
· sound and video recordings (such as a CD or videotape)
· hand-written notes or comments, including those written in note pads or on Post-it notes
Is the information 'held' under the Freedom of Information Act?
'Holding' information includes holding a copy of a record produced or supplied by someone else. However, if a public authority only holds information on behalf of someone else, for example a department holding trade union information on their computer system, then that public authority may not have to provide the information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
In some cases, it may not be clear whether information which is physically present on your premises or systems is properly to be regarded as 'held' by your public authority, for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act. Examples include:
· private material brought into the office by ministers or officials
· material belonging to other people or bodies
· trade union material
· constituency material
· material relating to party political matters.