Dear Commissioner,

 

I write to report a violation of the law by Queen's University Belfast (QUB).

 

On April 10th, I submitted a Request for Information to the Information Compliance Unit at QUB.

 

On April 24th, having received no acknowledgement of my request, I telephoned QUB.  The university claimed to have sent me a letter of acknowledgement by post; the letter was supposedly sent on April 16th, but had not (and has not) arrived.  I pointed out that my Request had been sent by e-mail, and asked that a all communications be done electronically.  A copy of the letter was then forwarded to me by e-mail.

 

The letter claimed that my e-mailed Request had only been received on April 16th.  The letter (correctly) stated that QUB had 20 business days to process my Request, and concluded that an overall response would be provided by May 15th, i.e. 20 business days after April 16th.  No explanation of why it took six days to receive my e-mail was provided.

 

On May 11th, I received an e-mail from the Information Compliance Officer at QUB stating that a response to my Request would be provided on May 18th.  The explanation given was that the Officer was on leave.

 

As of today, May 21st, I have received no other response to my Request.  It has been 28 business days since my Request was submitted (allowing one business day for receiving the Request). 

 

I ask that the university conform with the statutes.

 

Sincerely,
Douglas J. Keenan

Phone: 020 7537 4122

 

 

ATTACHMENTS: a complete copy of my e-mail correspondence with QUB (my original Request is enclosed with the attachment named “FOIAct_EIR”).