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/ NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES & RESOURCES GROUP
Town Hall, Darlington DL1 5QT
Tel: (01325) 388905
DX 69280 Darlington 6
Web site:
Mr Ian White
E-mail to: / Date:
Please ask for :
Direct Line:
Your Reference:
Our Reference:
Document Name: / 13 January 2014
Sue Reynolds
(01325) 388905
-
DBC-2581-14
FOI/DBC-2518-14

Dear Mr White

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Information Request

Your request for information, received 15 December 2014, has now been considered.

You requested:

1, Please send me a copy of the procedure the council followed in assessing my property for bedroom tax purposes?

2, As the process for deciding how many bedrooms my property has rests with the HB decision maker please tell me the council's formal definition of what is a bedroom?

3, Please advise me of the council's working definition of the term 'bedroom'?

4, Please advise where in the council's written decision making policy on the bedroom tax says it will refer my case to the Rent Officer Service?

5, Please advise how many of the bedroom tax decisions in Darlington were decided on the basis of a determination from the Rent Officer Service?

6, Please advise on and forward a copy of the council's policy on referring a social housing property to the Rent Officer Service on the basis that my property is unsuitably large as contained in the Housing Benefit Guidance Manual or HBGM at 4.1440?

7, Please advise how your policy differs from if my property was managed by a private landlord and I was a private tenant?

8, Please advise of the council's policy for formally notifying me of the bedroom tax decision?

9, I note the council's letter does not follow the draft letter it was advised to send by the Secretary of State in the A4/2012 Housing Benefit circular. Please advise why this was the case and please supply council minutes of where the form and timing of the notification letter was decided?

10, I note the council's alleged notification letter of your bedroom tax decision does not state that I have a formal right of appeal the bedroom tax decision. Please advise why you maintain this is a lawful notice and not a deficient one?

11, I note an alleged notification letter from the council purporting to notify me of your bedroom tax decision was issued before 1 April 2013 and despite the Secretary of State guidance in the A4/2012 Housing Benefit circular stating it cannot be sent until after the bedroom tax policy comes into effect. Please advise why this was the case and please advise whether you maintain this to be a deficient notice. I further request a copy in writing of the minutes of any council meeting where this was agreed?

12, Please forward a copy of the council's policy for the bedroom tax where an alleged bedroom measures less than 50 square feet or its metric equivalent?

13, Please advise by return a copy of the council's written policy for bedroom tax purposes where an alleged bedroom is less than 70 square feet or its metric equivalent?

14, Please advise of the councils written bedroom tax decision making policy for an alleged bedroom size of between 50 and 70 square feet or its metric equivalent?

15, Please advise how if the council's policy on bedroom size for determining whether a social property has a bedroom differs from its policy for a private tenant in a private property?

16, OnMarch 12th 2013 the exemptions for bedroom tax purposes were changed by the Secretary of State to allow an extra bedroom for an approved foster carer and the parents of a soldier, then please advise how and when you reassessed my claim due to this regulatory change. If the council did not reassess my claim after this change please advise how you know my household does not contain an approved foster carer or a soldier. Further advise by return whether you have asked or written to me as the tenant whether my household contains an approved foster carer of soldier. If not then please advise how the council maintain it can rely on the decision to reduce my Housing Benefit as a correct decision?

Our response:

For the reasons outlined in the refusal notice appended to this letter, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request or would like to request an internal review of our response, please write to:

Freedom of Information Officer

Darlington Borough Council

Resources Group

Town Hall

Darlington

DL15QT

E-mail:

You can also obtain further information from the Information Commissioner at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel:01625 545 700
Website:

Enquiries:

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Officer

Refusal Notice – Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) provides:

“14. Vexatious and repeated requests

(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious.”

We believe that the current request is vexatious for the following reasons.

1. Frequency of requests – the Council has received 22 freedom of information requests, containing 200 questions from you since 1 April 2014. Many of these were multi-part questions, for example, ‘…the number of complaints against children's social services since January 2010 (broken down by year)…’ We have also received 16 internal review requests from you since 1 April 2014. Whilst this may not seem like a large number in the scheme of the overall number of requests that the Council receives each year, it is a significant number to receive from a single applicant, particularly considering that each request contains multiple questions. These requests are often overlapping.

2. Scope of the request – while this request centres on a single theme i.e. the single room subsidy (the bedroom tax) the information requested would need to be obtained from various sources within the Council. This is common to your other requests. In addition, a number of your requests are for information pertaining to unrelated items, for example, one request was for information about the Mayoral lamp post, FOI requests and internal reviews while another request was for information about Sunday markets, park and ride and wheeled bins.

3. Pattern of requests – each request that is answered by the Council leads to further requests and/or internal reviews. It is also common to receive a request in relation to any article that appears in the local press or decisions directly affecting you. This has a significant impact on our already scarce resources.

4. Duration – as stated above, you have made a significant number of requests and internal reviews this year and this reflects our previous involvement with you. You have consistently submitted a large number of requests since the introduction of the Act in January 2005, approximately 143 requests containing some 930 separate questions since August 2006 (the Council no longer holds records for 2005 and the first seven months of 2006). As a result we have previously refused information under, section 14(1) of the Act.

5.

5. Motive – Your requests appear to either stem from your personal dissatisfaction with the Council or unfounded allegations of malfeasance. While we understand that you have concerns about the Council other than making our responses available to the public via whatdotheyknow.com there is no indication that the information we provide has ever been put to constructive use. Indeed, when we have informed you that information is already published in the public domain, there is no evidence that you have ever accessed it or used it to hold the Council to account. Further, you have stated in the past, and more recently during our attempts to improve relationships, that you are aware that submitting a high volume of requests for information has a serious impact on our resources and you intend to continue trying to disrupt the working of the Council. Given these statements we can only conclude that your current pattern of requests is aimed primarily at disrupting service delivery more so than achieving transparency and accountability, which are the fundamental aims of the Act.

6. Impact on staff – the fact that each request answered leads to further requests, internal reviews and correspondence, has the effect of harassing staff in the Complaints and Information Governance Team and in the services handling your requests. In addition, many of your requests contain accusations and use intemperate language, which is distressing for those staff to whom the accusations are directed.

7. Burden – the volume and complexity of your requests has a significant burden on the Council’s resources, diverting such resources from service delivery.

For the reasons outlined above, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act. You have the right to appeal against our decision; further information is provided in the letter that accompanies this refusal notice.

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