Return appeal to sender

Nothing special about the postal service

I don’t imagine that many Freedom of Information officers will have much sympathy for me, but I’d like to explain why the Information Commissioner is not currently my favourite organisation.

What has happened is that at the 11^th hour the Commissioner has mysteriously done a 180 degree turn and decided to reverse his decision which had been originally to uphold my appeal.

The first I knew of the Commissioner chickening out of a contest was when the Tribunal called me saying that as the original applicant I had ten days to carry on the case myself.

It all started ages ago when I was asked by a newspaper to make a request about the Royal Mail’s recorded delivery and special delivery services.

Specifically I wanted to know the number of complaints and the total amount of compensation relating to the two premium services.

Of course the Royal Mail refused my request claiming the information was protected under S.43 (Commercial Interests). I eventually appealed the case to the Information Commissioner who ordered disclosure. [Decision Notice].

The Royal Mail appealed the case and it was making its way to the Tribunal and I was not particularly anxious as I felt the S.43 claim was very weak.

Well, as I said I was rung up out of the blue by the Tribunal stating that new information had been provided by the Royal Mail just a few days before the hearing.

On sight of this new material the Information Commissioner threw in the towel and so I was asked if I wanted to take the case over at the last moment.

The Tribunal sent me – ironically by special delivery – two huge lever-arch folders of information that had been prepared for the Tribunal.

I’ve searched through this and try as I might I can’t see the document which in my opinion would make the Information Commissioner throw the towel in.

Anyhow as I already have two tribunals planned for this year relating to the BBC’s taxi spend and the Tate Modern’s penchant for exhibiting child porn I didn’t think I could stretch to a third – especially as I was thrown into it at the last moment.

I wrote to the Tribunal expressing my disappointment with the matter and the fact that when I have such a case I’m the only person there who isn’t getting paid. But seeing as all the Freedom of Information responses I get are free I don’t suppose there will be a lot of sympathy for me out there.