{"id":858,"date":"2016-12-10T20:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T20:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/?p=858"},"modified":"2016-12-10T20:09:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T20:09:23","slug":"freedom-of-information-liz-truss-open-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/2016\/12\/10\/freedom-of-information-liz-truss-open-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of Information – Open Letter to the Lord Chancellor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MAGYAR<\/a>On International Human Rights Day 2016 ANM hosts an Open Letter from Freedom of Information (FOI) Campaigner Alan Dransfield, to the Lord Chancellor the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss. This begins ANM’s scrutiny of the use of vexatious process to subvert Human Rights that are deemed necessary in a democracy.<\/p>\n

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\"Chancellor<\/a>

The Right Hon Elizabeth Truss The Lord Chief Chancellor of the<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Freedom<\/a>

Mr Alan Dransfield – Freedom of Information Campaigner and Social Watchdog<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

OPEN LETTER<\/p>\n

Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP
\nThe Lord Chancellor<\/p>\n

10th December 2016<\/p>\n

Dear Lord Chancellor<\/p>\n

Freedom of Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last six weeks I have provided you with sufficient demonstrable evidence that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are in meltdown and guilty of fraud and theft of Public Funds to enable you to act.<\/p>\n

There is also tangible evidence the ICO have been complicit with rogue Public Authorities to pervert the Course of Justice by the consistent misuse and abuse of section 14\/1 of the FOIA 2004, i.e., vexatious exemption. Ditto for section 12(4)(b) of the EIRA 204: Manifestly Unreasonable.<\/p>\n

The evidence of complicity between the ICO and Public Authorities seeking to avoid obligations under FOI by consistent misuse and abuse of Section 14\/1 vexatious exemption is overwhelming.<\/p>\n

My allegations originally stem from personal experience of a lack of transparency, leading to me becoming the UK’s leading Court Authority on vexatious exemption via GIA\/3037\/2011 Dransfield v ICO, which was upheld in the Court of Appeal under C3\/2015\/1855 Dransfield v ICO but irrefutable evidence held by me shows the legal errors in the GIA\/3037\/2011 vexatious decision. “Legal errors”\u00a0would be too kind, I am of the view Judge Wikeley made his vexatious decision via a perverse mindset.<\/p>\n

However there is a plethora of other allegations against the ICO, all of which support my claim that the ICO are in meltdown.<\/p>\n

They include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The ICO Management Team have not released their Register of Interest details, including the Commissioner Miss Denham.<\/li>\n
  2. One ICO Senior Manager, Mr Alex Goantis, is the Leader of Stockport Council, which MUST be a conflict of Interest.<\/li>\n
  3. ICO officials have claimed overseas travels and other expenses WITHOUT providing receipts for the last decade.<\/li>\n
  4. The ICO are in breach of EU Trade laws by not ensuring Tender Contracts for the their Legal Services. They automatically pass over the majority of their Legal Work to KBW<\/a>, which any fair minded person would assume reflects of a cozy relations between the ICO and KBW Law Firm<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Lord Chancellor, this vexatious claptrap MUST stop and the ICO must be held accountable, for both their fiscal remit and their moral obligations. The buck stop at your desk.<\/p>\n

    My latest case with the ICO is regarding the Olympic Stadium, which I maintain is unsafe and unfit for purpose during a thunderstorm, because it has not been provisioned with Lightning Protection. The ICO claim 12 (5), national security, public safety claptrap.<\/p>\n

    Things are SO bad at the ICO you could do a lot worse than sacking Elizabeth Denham and replacing her with yours truly Alan M Dransfield.<\/p>\n

    For your information, action and files<\/p>\n

    Yours sincerely<\/p>\n

    Alan M Dransfield
    \nFOI Campaigner and Social Watchdog<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    ____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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    EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

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    What the FOI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Mr Dransfield’s long experience as a social watchdog on FOI includes both success and failure in gaining public interest information.<\/p>\n

    \"Dransfield's<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Dransfield’s successful appeal, following initial refusal for information about the lack of lightning protection on the Exeter rugby bridge, was subsequently turned over yet again by the above mentioned Judge Wikeley in a further appeal action brought significantly, not by Exeter County Council, but by the ICO itself.<\/p>\n

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    “Vexatious” Scape-goating<\/strong><\/p>\n

    It’s hard not to notice that the notion of “vexatious” planted in that second appeal has since been extensively used, citing this very case as precedent, to avoid thousands of public enquiries into matters of public safety by creating Mr Dransfield into a ‘vexatious’ scape-goat, a ready peg\u00a0for public authorities to hang their hat on when they don’t want to answer the question.<\/p>\n

    Mr Dransfield has served that purpose for them over 3,800 documentable times,\u00a0and his\u00a0superior knowledge of lighting protection systems, and Health and Safety regulations, made him an obvious candidate\u00a0for the projection of a vexatiousness that more properly should be seen as\u00a0belonging to the ICO itself.<\/p>\n

    This is especially true in view of the recent ECHR ruling in the case of Magyar Helsinki Bizotts\u00e0g v Hungary<\/a>\u00a0which has now established\u00a0the relevance of\u00a0Article 10\u00a0to freedom\u00a0of information about matters of public interest, with direct implications for the legion instances Mr Dransfield has highlighted of such requests being treated as “vexatious”.<\/p>\n

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    UK out of step with Article 10?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The United Kingdom\u00a0was a nay-saying “intervener” in the landmark Magyar Helsinki Bizotts\u00e0g v Hungary case, arguing that there was no such obligation to part with information. From para\u00a06;1 of the UK submission:<\/p>\n

    “As a matter of interpretation of the language of Article 10.1, and having regard to the object and purpose of that provision, it is plain that the right \u201cto receive \u2026 information \u2026 without interference contained in Article 10.1 protects the right to receive information from a person who is willing to impart it. Article 10.1 does not provide a general right of access to information of public interest held by public authorities\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This point of view matches Mr Dransfield’s experience and observation of the UKs outlook on\u00a0FOI, and indeed, the very same lawyers from law firm\u00a0KBW who receive a starkly disproportionate amount of ICO business domestically according to Mr Dransfield’s research, and who have argued against his\u00a0requests for information relating to public health and safety, were the lawyers appearing in Strasburg to put forward the above point of view.<\/p>\n

    Some of these\u00a0same lawyers are also now taking a high profile role in seeking to close down parliamentary scrutiny of Article 50 in Brexit.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Human Rights Obligations<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Mr Dransfield’s Open Letter, appropriately published on International Human Rights Day, is a request to return to sanity regarding transparency of public interest information, as the ECHR ruling by the Grand Chamber at 15 votes to 2 that there is indeed an obligation under Article 10 to provide information to those wishing to impart it widely in the public interest. From the Strasburg Observers<\/a>\u00a0case summary:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    It is\u00a0nonsense to suggest that the public have no interest in the lack of lightning protection on a sports stadium or bridge, or in other failures to adhere to Health & Safety Directive rules for providing safe public spaces for education, work and relaxation, all matters on which Mr Dransfield has sought, and been refused, information.<\/p>\n

    The Grand Chamber further decided by 15:2 to clarify matters about the threshold:<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Information Commissioner’s Office\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    These Human Rights obligations, conflicts of interest, as well as transparency and compliance in procurement practises of HM Government and it’s agencies\u00a0should be of great interest the new Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, especially as they appear to concur with remarks she made herself at an event marking 250 years of freedom of information held at the Free Word Centre, London on 8th December 2016:<\/p>\n