BN66 - the road to Judicial Review

[smalldog]

The Freedom of Information Act provides for authorities to reject requests which would cost more than £600. Apparently, this equates to one person spending 3½ working days.

can we offer to pay for this info?
and if we did would they then have to provide it? otherwise the FOI seems very weak, anything they dont want declared just so happens to be too expensive!! There is always a bloody way for these snakes to wriggle out of something..

[orientalist]

can we offer to pay for this info?
and if we did would they then have to provide it? otherwise the FOI seems very weak, anything they dont want declared just so happens to be too expensive!! There is always a bloody way for these snakes to wriggle out of something..

as they are acting within "the letter of the law " if not the spirit, who are we to judge? mind you narrowing down requests so that they take less than 3.5 days worth each, but making more of them seems to be a workaround..... so well done hector for taking advantage of the rules available to him (her).... if only there was a similar situation we could draw comaprisons to....

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Might it be worth engaging a lawyer or asking MP for help via their legals?

I am in contact with Montp's legals over this.

We have got plenty of time between now and the JR to keep chipping away at them.

I have also got something up my sleave which I don't want to reveal here just in case our "friends" are monitoring.

[MuddyFunster]

I joined the CN club yesterday. After 11 months of arriving home every day expecting their to be a big brown envelope, the day finally arrived. Strange how their figures are 7k different to mine, in their favour of course... Contacted MontP about it.

It all becomes rather more real once that letter arrives...

The fight's just getting started though, so HMRC you can

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Strange how their figures are 7k different to mine, in their favour of course...

Same happened to me except...

their figures were £5k more than they had previously estimated!!!

And this was nothing to do with interest. It turns out that they incorrectly calculated NI in the previous statements they sent me.

However, in terms of mistakes, this is nothing compared to what some people have had to put up with. I think this one takes the biscuit:

"The stress was made worse when HMRC applied for a warrent from the Sherrifs Court to seize my house, even though the tax amounts had been appealed"

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Clarification re. deGraaf

Originally on the first page I said that deGraaf were supporting Montp's JR. This was certainly the impression I got from reading the updates forwarded to me by some of their clients.

I have been asked to point out that this is not the case, and they are not involved with the Montp JR.

I have therefore amended the first page accordingly.

[BrilloPad]

as they are acting within "the letter of the law " if not the spirit, who are we to judge? mind you narrowing down requests so that they take less than 3.5 days worth each, but making more of them seems to be a workaround..... so well done hector for taking advantage of the rules available to him (her).... if only there was a similar situation we could draw comaprisons to....

Have tried narrowing down requests. So far all come back as £600.

[orientalist]

Have tried narrowing down requests. So far all come back as £600.

Do you think that under FOI we could request a copy of the cost/effort assesment they make for each request?

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Have tried narrowing down requests. So far all come back as £600.

All they have to say is that it exceeds the £600 limit.

It would be more credible if they produced an actual estimate of how long it would take. Of course, this would give you a hint as to far you would need to narrow down your request, hence the reason why they don't do that.

Have you also noticed how every response comes in bang on the 20 working day deadline? I bet there is an internal guideline which says even if they could respond in advance of the 20 days, they must leave it until the very last day. This keeps their compliance stats looking good but ensures most people lose interest and don't bother following up.

However, with £150k riding on this, they can forget any idea of me losing interest.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Do you think that under FOI we could request a copy of the cost/effort assesment they make for each request?

I'll try that next time.

Although, I bet they will claim it would cost more than £600 to work out how much it would cost.