Defra FoI continued fail

My nudge to Defra yesterday about their failure to respond to my FoI/EIR request elicited a response this morning.  It wasn’t a good response, but it was a response.

Here is a section from their response (I’ll keep the rest of it just between me and Defra for now):

 

 

 

Later in the response, this link is given which has months old information on ministerial meetings, gifts, hospitality and international travel.

And here is my response:

 

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms

Thank you for your reply – I note that you do not apologise for its lateness.

You state that the information I requested is publicly available – this was not true at the time I requested the information and is not true now. The publicly available information covers only part of the period about which I asked. Please answer my question with respect to meetings held to include the period 1 January – 8 March.

Also, at the time of my request even the information now available was not available so you could have responded to my information request more quickly and more helpfully .

Mine is a reasonable request and not taxing to answer. It must be a reasonable request since Defra routinely posts this information, eventually, on its website. Given that the material posted for the period October-December 2017 was only posted on the Defra website in late March it was not available at the time.  I cannot see any reason why I should wait until perhaps June to be given the information about who the Secretary of State met in January, February or the first 8 days of March.

Given the lateness of your response, please provide the information requested by the close of business tomorrow, Friday 27 April (2018).

Thank you for the information about the complaints procedure, I hope that will not prove necessary to use.

 

 

 

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