Wrong, wrong, wrong..

Who was supposed to be packing the passport?

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) have been given a public rebuke from the Information Commissioner’s Office for taking 100 days to carry out an internal review relating to a request concerning Cherie Blair.

The applicant had asked for information the MPS held on an incident when the former Prime Minister’s wife turned up at Heathrow without her passport and then contacted No.10 to get the document couriered to the airport. (link)

Initially the MPS had refused the request for information claiming it was covered by S.24 (National Security), S.31 (Law enforcement) and S.38 (Health and Safety).

But after the Information Commissioner got involved the MPS admitted that the limited information it did hold - a short press statement - was not covered by the exemptions.

However, the Commissioner explored the case and found the complainant had asked the MPS for an internal review on 16 March 2006 and had to wait more than five months, until 21 August 2006 for the MPS to confirm its refusal.

In the decision notice the MPS is taken to task for:

• Belatedly finding information that should have been disclosed,
• Only undertaking a thorough search for information after the intervention of the Commissioner,
• Taking 90 days to issue its initial refusal notice,
• Incorrectly stating that the information was covered by three exemptions, and failing to state which subsections of the exemptions it thought were applicable,
• Taking over a 100 days to carry out an internal review which upheld its own incorrect view, which was later retracted after the intervention of the Commissioner.

The Information Commissioner said in his decision notice that the MPS breached Section 1, Section 10 and Section 17 of the Act.

He said: “The Commissioner remains concerned that it took over 100 working days for an internal review to be completed.”