FAO: The Board and Chief Executive
Dear Commissioners,
I am writing to you not in the spirit of courtesy but of necessity. The EHRC exists to safeguard the rights of the people of this country under domestic law and the European Convention on Human Rights. Yet in practice, you have stood idle while one of the most basic rights — the right of access to information — has been systematically dismantled.
For the past decade, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), backed by the courts, has weaponised the so-called Dransfield precedent to label Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Subject Access Requests as “vexatious.” This has become a blanket tool to shut down scrutiny, to obstruct legitimate inquiries, and to silence whistleblowers. The misuse of FOIA section 14(1) and GDPR article 12(5)(b) is not an accident: it is deliberate, coordinated, and it amounts to a denial of:
- Article 6 rights (a fair hearing)
- Article 10 rights (freedom of expression and the right to receive and impart information)
I have lived this personally. My FOI requests — concerning public safety, accountability, and corruption — have been suppressed by this misuse. Hundreds of others have suffered the same treatment. The courts have closed ranks. The ICO has lied in writing. And meanwhile, the EHRC has done nothing.
You are not a spectator. You are the statutory body charged with defending human rights. Your silence has become complicity.
I therefore call on the EHRC to:
- Announce an independent inquiry into the ICO’s misuse of FOIA s14(1) and GDPR art. 12(5)(b).
- Confirm what steps you have taken, if any, to address the systemic denial of information rights.
- Acknowledge publicly that these practices undermine Articles 6 and 10 of the ECHR.
If you continue to do nothing, then the public and the press will draw the obvious conclusion: the EHRC is not fit for purpose.
History will not look kindly on silence in the face of corruption. The people of this country deserve transparency and accountability, not another quango that shields wrongdoing.
Yours sincerely,
Alan M. Dransfield
FOI Campaigner & Human Rights Advocate
Alan M Dransfield
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