When the ICO investigates… the ICO (yes, really).
I’ve just come across an ICO Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Decision Notice (Ref: FS50802258, dated 6 June 2019) which spells out something most people would assume can’t happen in a fair system.
The ICO admits, in black and white, that:
“The Commissioner is both the regulator of the FOIA and a public authority subject to the FOIA.”
In other words: if you make a complaint against the ICO about how it handled an FOI request, the ICO (as “Commissioner”) makes a formal determination on a complaint made against itself (as “ICO”).
They try to tidy this up with wording:
• “ICO” = the ICO dealing with the FOI request
• “Commissioner” = the ICO dealing with the complaint
But it’s still the same organisation, under the same roof — effectively a regulator acting as judge in its own cause.
The only genuinely independent route after that is an appeal to the Tribunal — but most ordinary people never get anywhere near that stage.
Worth reflecting on, given how much power the ICO has over public access to information or am I being too vexatious again?
Alan M Dransfield
Return to Bomb Alley 1982 – The Falklands Deception, by Paul Cardin
Amazon link
Wirral In It Together 