Lorne House

Summary

A request for all correspondence and file notes regarding Lorne House between May 2015 and May 2017 was partially fulfilled with two bundles of documents before being deemed vexatious due to the excessive burden on departmental resources.

Key Facts

• The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture released two bundles of information totaling 302 pages.
• Processing the request required over 100 hours of work by at least eight officers.
• The authority consulted seven third parties during the review process.
• The request was ultimately classified as vexatious under section 11(3)(d) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015.
• Personal information was redacted from the released documents under section 25 of the Act.

Data Disclosed

• 2017-05-08
• 2017-11-03
• 2017-10-05
• 2017-11-03
• 97 pages
• 205 pages
• 302 pages
• 100 hours
• seven third parties
• eight officers
• 1st May 2015
• 8th May 2017
• 12/00269/REGBLD
• 15/01318/CON

Exemptions Cited

• Section 25 (Personal information)
• Section 11(3)(d) (Vexatious request)

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Page 1 of 3

Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture

Rheynn Chymmyltaght, Bee as Eirinys

5th October 2017

Dear

Request under the Freedom of Information Act 2015 Ref: IM86933I Lorne House Further to your information request received on the 8th May 2017 and our letter to you of the 15th August.

You asked:

“Please may I have all correspondence, file notes and all other information which
relates to Lorne House, Douglas Street, Castletown, IM9 1AZ, including any correspondence with Manx National Heritage.”

You then clarified this to be for the period 1st May 2015 to 8th May 2017.

Response

Our aim is to provide information wherever possible and we are now ready to release the second bundle of information (November 2015 to April 2016 inclusive). If you could please visit our office with the memory stick we provided previously we will load the information onto it for you. Personal information is absolutely exempt from release under section 25 of the Act and is therefore redacted throughout the bundle.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, as discussed in our telephone conversation yesterday, although we had intended to (and indeed had worked towards) releasing all the information held, the task is now proving much more onerous and burdensome than we had anticipated. The first bundle of information contained 97 pages and this second bundle contains 205 pages; together they have involved consulting seven third parties, have involved at least eight officers and taken in excess of 100 hours.

We recognise there is some public interest in the general matter to which your request relates, however responding to the request in its current form, consideration of the remainder of the information and consultation with third parties will further substantially
Corporate Services Directorate, Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road,
St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im
www.gov.im Quoting Ref: IM86933I Your Ref:

Page 2 of 3

interfere with the day-to-day operations of the Department, as this work needs to be absorbed in addition to the day to day business.

Advice and assistance The Department would like to request that you be more specific about the information you are requesting. The parameters of the request need to be narrowed in order that the burden of work can be managed more effectively. If you are able to narrow the parameters it will help greatly in our endeavours to provide what you want, while minimising the expenditure of public resources on servicing your request. We will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible though it may still take some time unless the scope is considerably streamlined.

Information already in the public domain The Department would also like to point out that there is already a lot of information available on the subject of your request, some of which can be accessed via the links below.

Link to - Application for the de-registration of Lorne House (12/00269/REGBLD) in accordance with 7(1)(a) of the (Registered Buildings) Regulations 2013: https://services.gov.im/planningapplication/services/planning/planningapplicationdetails.iom ?ApplicationReferenceNumber=15/01318/CON

Link to - Appeal against the approval of application for the de-registration of Lorne House (12/00269/REGBLD) in accordance with 7(1)(a) of the (Registered Buildings) Regulations 2013.: https://www.gov.im/about-the-government/departments/cabinet-office/planning- appeals/1501318con-lorne-house/

Section 11 Grants of requests for information If you are not able to narrow your request, then we will consider whether the request amounts to being “vexatious, malicious, misconceived or lacking in substance”, pursuant to section 11(3)(d) of the Act. The purpose of this provision is to protect the resources of a public authority in its everyday business from disproportionate use of the Act. We are only able to exercise this after providing advice and assistance to you, which is the purpose of this letter and previous emails. Whether a request is vexatious, malicious, frivolous, misconceived or lacking in substance depends on the circumstances of each case and relates to the request not the requester.

Under the section 2 of the Code of Practice (Linked here https://www.gov.im/about-the- government/access-to-government-information/ ) issued under section 60 of the FOIA, to evidence this, some of the particular factors that may be considered are:

1. Having already spent in excess of 100 hours on this request; to spend at least a similar amount of time considering the remainder of the information is disproportionate in terms of the strain on time and resources that the Department cannot reasonably be expected to comply with the request no matter how legitimate the subject matter or your intentions. (sect. 2(b) “Burden on an Authority”)

2. Whether the breadth of your request can be considered to amount to a fishing expedition without any idea of what might be revealed, rather than having a clear focus. (sect. 2(b) “Scattergun approach”))

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Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture

Rheynn Chymmyltaght, Bee as Eirinys

3rd November 2017

Dear

Freedom of Information Act 2015 (FoIA) Ref: IM86933I, Lorne House Refusal Notice

Further to our letter of the 5th October (emailed to ) and the above FoI request. Your original request dated 8th May 2017 asked for: “Please may I have all correspondence, file notes and all other information which relates to Lorne House, Douglas Street, Castletown, IM9 1AZ, including any correspondence with Manx National Heritage.”

You then clarified this to be for the period 1st May 2015 to 8th May 2017.

Response

From the time of your initial request to date, a large amount of work has been undertaken by many officers searching for and considering information. Our aim is to provide information wherever possible and as this work progressed, the information being retrieved has been considered and some information has been supplied. This was provided in two batches as below:

1. On the 15th August we provided 1st May 2015 to 31st October 2015, and
2. On the 5th October we provided 1st November 2015 to 30th April 2016.

To date this request has involved consulting seven third parties, involved at least eight officers and the work has taken in excess of 100 hours. The amount of work involved with this single request is proving too substantial and burdensome to manage without impacting on the day to day operation of some areas of the Department.

Our letter to you of the 5th October requested that you be more specific about the information you would like to see. If this clarification were not received by 5pm on the 1st November we stated a refusal notice would be issued as required by s17 of the FoIA.

The Department remains of the view that it is unreasonable to be expected to answer the request further as it stands.
Freedom of Information
Co-ordinator Corporate Services Directorate, Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road,
St John’s, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS Tel no (01624) 685854 Fax no (01624 685851 Email: defa@gov.im
www.gov.im

Quoting Ref: IM86399I Your Ref:

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FoIA Section 11 Grant of requests for information While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 11(3)(d) of the Act a public authority may refuse to give the information requested if the request is misconceived or lacking in substance. Examples of factors which a public authority may take into account in determining if your request is misconceived or lacking in substance are set out in Section 2 of the Code of Practice (CoP) issued under section 60 of the Act, which can be found here https://legislation.gov.im/cms/images/LEGISLATION/PRINCIPAL/2015/2015- 0008/FreedomofInformationAct2015 4.pdf
We have assessed all of the circumstances of the case and we consider that a number of factors apply to your request, in particular: 1. Burden on an Authority (CoP 2.4(b)) The effort required to continue to meet the request is so disproportionate in terms of the strain on time and resources, that the Department cannot reasonably be expected to comply, no matter how legitimate the subject matter or how valid your intentions (CoP part 2.4(b)). In this case the request has already involved eight officers and taken in excess of 100 hours. To proceed with your request would take at the very least the same amount of time and probably more, as the timescale of the issue progressed more correspondence was generated. There would need to be assessment of the information against possible exemptions, consultation with third parties, redaction and compilation of a response. This is contrary to the purpose of the Act, which states that the principles of FoIA are that: (a) the information should be available to the public to promote the public interest; and (b) exceptions to the right of access are necessary to maintain a balance with rights to privacy, effective government, and value for the taxpayer. We believe that to continue with this request in its current form would tip the balance beyond the point where the Department could reasonably be expected to prioritise the processing of this single request over all of the other functions that it continues to fulfil in its aim to provide effective government and value for the taxpayer. 3. Inability to refine and narrow questions to a reasonable scale of burden (CoP 2.4(b)) Despite our advice to narrow the parameters of this request and to focus it in a way the Department is able to manage this has not been forthcoming. In considering the above matters we have borne the following questions in mind: 1. Will compliance with the request create a significant burden on DEFA in terms of expense and distraction?
• It will create a significant burden, as explained under 1, above.

1. Does the request appear to have any serious purpose and/or value?

APPENDIX 1-
PART 2of 4 LORNE HSE FOI BUNDLE