ICO policy documents: Line to Take
From FOIwiki
Introduction
In January 2007, the ICO released via FOI [1] a number of their "Line to take" policy documents - these indicate how they approach certain types of complaints.
Here is the ICO's description of what they are, from the above document:
- "By way of background, these documents are produced by our Policy Team as internal policy lines on the interpretation and application of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 for the benefit of the FOI Department as a whole. The policy lines are signed off at Assistant Commissioner level, and you will note that in the main they derive from Decision Notices and/or Information Tribunal decisions."
A growing number of LTTs have been produced since then - as at February 2011, there are just under 200 such Lines to Take. The ICO doesn't yet routinely publish these, so they have been requested by means of FOI requests. The following links provide detail for each set of LTTs release, and links to their original source documents:
- January 2007 - 28 LTTs produced
- August 2010 - issue of LTT1 - LTT177.
- February 2011 - amendments to 16 LTTs (mostly following Information Tribunal rulings), and 16 new LTTs.
- May 2015 - https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/our-information/disclosure-log/irq0578998/
List of LTTs on FOIwiki
- Line to take - LTT1 - Reasonable amount
- Line to take - LTT2 - Deleted electronic information
- Line to take - LTT3 - Information deleted after request
- Line to take - LTT4 - Use of specialist staff or software
- Line to take - LTT5 - Similarity of s42 and regulation 12(5)(b)
- Line to take - LTT6 - Waiver of legal professional privilege
- Line to take - LTT7 - Town and Country Planning Act 1990
- Line to take - LTT8 - Clarification of requests
- Line to take - LTT9 - Issues not raised by complainant
Line to take - LTT10 - Public authorities - Port of London- withdrawn by ICO.- Line to take - LTT11 - District Auditors
- Line to take - LTT12 - Official Receivers
- Line to take - LTT13 - Prejudice test
- Line to take - LTT14 - Public interest inherent in exemption / exception
- Line to take - LTT15 - Public interest in legal professional privilege
- Line to take - LTT16 - Prejudice to contractual relations
- Line to take - LTT17 - Investigation of the reasonable opinion of the qualified person
- Line to take - LTT18 - Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
- Line to take - LTT19 - Applicability of section 30(1)
- Line to take - LTT20 - Public interest factors for s30
- Line to take - LTT21 - Exemptions and exceptions not claimed by a public authority
- Line to take - LTT22 - Accessibility of court records
- Line to take - LTT23 - Police Act 1996
- Line to take - LTT24 - Public Contract Regulations
- Line to take - LTT25 - Inspection as a form of publication
- Line to take - LTT26 - Reasonably accessible information and publication schemes
- Line to take - LTT27 - Audit Commission Act 1998
- Line to take - LTT28 - Legal aid costs
- Line to take - LTT29 - Finding in breach of sections 1, 10 or 17
- Line to take - LTT30 - Disclosure of Vehicle Identification Numbers
- Line to take - LTT31 - Duty to search only up to the appropriate limit
- Line to take - LTT32 - Requests for schedules of documents
- Line to take - LTT33 - Duty to confirm or deny in the EIR
- Line to take - LTT34 - Responses to 'information not held' cases
- Line to take - LTT35 - Interpretation of 'reasonable opinion'
- Line to take - LTT36 - Application of PIT to s36
- Line to take - LTT37 - Access to medical records of the deceased
- Line to take - LTT38 - Definition of court records
- Line to take - LTT39 - Failure to issue refusal notice in time
- Line to take - LTT40 - Contracts between public authorities and third parties
- Line to take - LTT41 - Public interest in confidence
- Line to take - LTT42 - No inherent public interest in s35
- Line to take - LTT43 - Guiding principles in relation to s35(1)(a) & Reg 12(4)(e) public interest
Line to take - LTT44- withdrawn by ICO- Line to take - LTT45 - Disclosure to public
- Line to take - LTT46 - Assumption in favour of disclosure
- Line to take - LTT47 - Working days and variations to time for compliance
- Line to take - LTT48 - Relevant and non relevant public interest factors
- Line to take - LTT49 - Age of information
- Line to take - LTT50 - Disclosure of minutes
- Line to take - LTT51 - "Relates to"
- Line to take - LTT52 - Statistical Information
- Line to take - LTT53 - Reliance on s23(5) and s24(2) in conjunction
- Line to take - LTT54 - National Security
- Line to take - LTT55 - Evidence from third parties
- Line to take - LTT56 - Second data protection principle
- Line to take - LTT57 - Schedule 2 Condition 6 of the DPA
Line to take - LTT58- withdrawn by ICO- Line to take - LTT59 - Fair Processing Notices
- Line to take - LTT60 - Interpreting "proceedings" for the purposes of regulation 12(5)(d)
- Line to take - LTT61 - Advice to Decision Makers
- Line to take - LTT62 - Completion of policy formulation and development in relation to the PIT
- Line to take - LTT63 - Failure to specify an exemption / exception on which the PA later relies
- Line to take - LTT64 - Neither confirm nor deny
- Line to take - LTT65 - Vexatious request for published information
- Line to take - LTT66 - Minutes & agendas
- Line to take - LTT67 - Public interest in s30(1) & s31
- Line to take - LTT68 - Required for purposes of national security
- Line to take - LTT69 - Partial breach of s17
- Line to take - LTT70 - Public interest in preventing crime against individuals
- Line to take - LTT71 - Addresses of properties
- Line to take - LTT72 - Timing of reliance on s11
- Line to take - LTT73 - BBC America & BBC Worldwide - status
- Line to take - LTT74 - Consistent treatment of confidential information
- Line to take - LTT75 - Inter-relation of s35 & s36, and of s30 & s31
- Line to take - LTT76 - Third party on-line databases
- Line to take - LTT77 - Information held in electronic or manual files
- Line to take - LTT78 - Information held in electronic databases
- Line to take - LTT79 - ?? Missing
- Line to take - LTT80 - Defining environmental information
- Line to take - LTT81 - Parking enforcement
- Line to take - LTT82 - "Any information on"
- Line to take - LTT83 - Future likely effects
- Line to take - LTT84 - Threshold of "likely to affect" and "may be affected"
- Line to take - LTT85 - Held otherwise than on behalf of
- Line to take - LTT86 - Personal Data disclosed in open court
- Line to take - LTT87 - Limits of s16
- Line to take - LTT88 - Clarifying requests
- Line to take - LTT89 - More than one objective reading of a request
- Line to take - LTT90 - "Duty" to read a request objectively
- Line to take - LTT91 - Advice & assistance under the EIR
- Line to take - LTT92 - Timing at which exemptions and public interest test are to be applied
- Line to take - LTT93 - Test of confidence
- Line to take - LTT94 - Necessary quality of confidence
- Line to take - LTT95 - Obligation of confidence
- Line to take - LTT96 - Public interest in favour of maintaining a confidence
- Line to take - LTT97 - Detriment to the confider
- Line to take - LTT98 - Human Rights Act 1998 - Article 8
- Line to take - LTT99 - Past present & future emissions under 12(9)
- Line to take - LTT100 - Information pre-dating an investigation
- Line to take - LTT101 - Failure to cite specific exemption section number (FOI)
- Line to take - LTT102 - Failure to cite specific exception section number (EIR)
- Line to take - LTT103 - Provision of information under under request headings
- Line to take - LTT104 - Information caught by regulation 12(4)(e)
- Line to take - LTT105 - Claims of more than one limb of s36(2)
- Line to take - LTT106 - Summaries of information under the EIR
- Line to take - LTT107 - No prejudice / adverse effect test for class based exemptions / exceptions
- Line to take - LTT108 - Digests and Summaries under the FOIA
- Line to take - LTT109 - Information “obtained from” any person
- Line to take - LTT110 - Drafts of documents where final versions are complete
- Line to take - LTT111 - Waiver of legal professional privilege – description of partial waiver
- Line to take - LTT112 - The law of confidence & Human Rights Act 1998
- Line to take - LTT113 - Definition of Legal Professional Privilege
- Line to take - LTT114 - Assessing whether information has been communicated or made available
- Line to take - LTT115 - Redaction and the Fees Regulations
- Line to take - LTT116 - Reasonable estimates
- Line to take - LTT117 - Threshold of adverse effect
- Line to take - LTT118 - Flaws in the application of s36
- Line to take - LTT119 - Inter-relation between s21 & s39 FOIA and the EIRs
- Line to take - LTT120 - Advice and assistance - erroneous reliance on s14 or derogation
- Line to take - LTT121 - Information held (on balance of probabilities) test
- Line to take - LTT122 - Documents containing both environmental & other information
- Line to take - LTT123 - Vexatious requests
- Line to take - LTT124 - Multiple data subjects
- Line to take - LTT125 - Held on behalf of the public authority - solicitor’s files
- Line to take - LTT126 - Failure to identify questions as requests
- Line to take - LTT127 - Scope & overlap of s35(1)(a) and s35(1)(b)
- Line to take - LTT128 - Wider impact of disclosure on the conduct of good government
- Line to take - LTT129 - Safe space arguments
- Line to take - LTT130 - "Chilling effect" arguments
- Line to take - LTT131 - Risk to the role and integrity of Civil Service
- Line to take - LTT132 - Public Interest in protecting collective Cabinet responsibility
- Line to take - LTT133 - Overview of Section 35 & Regulation 12(4)(e) Public Interest arguments
- Line to take - LTT134 - Realistic expectation of confidentiality under s27(2) and (3)
- Line to take - LTT135 - Confidentiality and information "obtained from" under s27(2)
- Line to take - LTT136 - Nature of prejudice to international relations under s27(1) (and potentially applicable to Regulation 12(5)(a))
- Line to take - LTT137 - Refined and clarified requests as "new" requests
- Line to take - LTT138 - Degree of similarity required in order to aggregate requests
- Line to take - LTT139 - Extent to which information referred to in court (in criminal proceedings) is in the public domain
- Line to take - LTT140 - Pseudonyms
- Line to take - LTT141 - Advice and assistance in relation to s12
- Line to take - LTT142 - Specifying steps in relation to advice and assistance
- Line to take - LTT143 - Reasonably accessible information
- Line to take - LTT144 - Personal data - anonymised statistics
- Line to take - LTT145 - Aggregation of multiple requests within a single item of correspondence
- Line to take - LTT146 - Public Interest Test for "raw notes" and "aide memoire notes"
- Line to take - LTT147 - "Manifestly unreasonable" in relation to the cost of complying with a request
- Line to take - LTT148 - Public interest arguments presented in favour of maintaining a relevant exemption for withholding information on lobbyists
- Line to take - LTT149 - Public interest in disclosing information about lobbyists
- Line to take - LTT150 - "Meta-requests" (requests about requests)
- Line to take - LTT151 - Examples where information is accepted as reasonably accessible to the applicant
- Line to take - LTT152 - Naming Officials representing Lobbyists and Public Authorities
- Line to take - LTT153 - The Commissioner’s approach to information relating to emissions
- Line to take - LTT154 - The right to specify the form in which a copy is provided
- Line to take - LTT155 - Gateway Reviews are an audit function
- Line to take - LTT156 - Form & Format and the Right to Inspect
- Line to take - LTT157 - Listed Buildings
- Line to take - LTT158 - Functions exercised for specified purposes under section 31
- Line to take - LTT159 - Law Officer’s Advice and similarity with Legal Professional Privilege
- Line to take - LTT160 - Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information
- Line to take - LTT161 - Public interest factors for regulation 12(5)(e)
- Line to take - LTT162 - Anonymising Post codes
- Line to take - LTT163 - Fairness
- Line to take - LTT164 - Fairness - Casework Examples for LTT163
- Line to take - LTT165 - Section 40 Process Chart
- Line to take - LTT166 - Lawfulness
- Line to take - LTT167 - Consent
- Line to take - LTT168 - DPA "special purposes" & disclosures under FOI / EIR
- Line to take - LTT169 - Information that is exempt from a data subject’s right of access
- Line to take - LTT170 - Government Policy can be produced in many ways
- Line to take - LTT171 - Information vs documents
- Line to take - LTT172 - Meaning of the term "actionable" in section 41 cases
- Line to take - LTT173 - Impact of disclosure under FOIA on the voluntary supply of information to regulatory bodies
- Line to take - LTT174 - Calculating costs where request(s) span several access regimes (DPA/FOIA/EIR)
- Line to take - LTT175 - Flowchart for LTT174
- Line to take - LTT176 - When does the public interest test apply to the exclusion from the duty to confirm or deny whether personal data is held
- Line to take - LTT177 - Advice and assistance where a request cannot be refined
- Line to take - LTT178 - A public authority shall not charge for allowing an applicant to inspect information
- Line to take - LTT179 - Section 22 only applies to information clearly intended for publication
- Line to take - LTT180 - The endangerment test under s38
- Line to take - LTT181 - Information / Documents post-dating an investigation
- Line to take - LTT182 - Vexatious requests under EIR
- Line to take - LTT183 - Discretion to order no steps
- Line to take - LTT184 - Functions and statutory bars
- Line to take - LTT185 - Condition 5 Schedule 3 Data Protection Act 1998 (condition for processing sensitive personal data)
- Line to take - LTT186 - When a refusal notice is not required in respect of a vexatious request
- Line to take - LTT187 - Investigating procedural breaches - gateway line
- Line to take - LTT188 - Issuing a DN in relation to information already disclosed
- Line to take - LTT189 - Non-response cases
- Line to take - LTT190 - Decision notices ordering the PA to reconsider the request
- Line to take - LTT191 - Internal review under the EIR - issuing a DN requiring an internal review
- Line to take - LTT192 - Rejecting procedural exemptions / exceptions
- Line to take - LTT193 - Finding that further information is held approach to decision notices
