Practically Speaking Part III – Getting Vexed

FOIMan brings you the third installment of his series for PDP’s Freedom of Information Journal.

In part III of the Practically Speaking series, I looked at the fraught subject of how to apply the provision for  vexatious requests under FOI. The piece was primarily informed by the important decisions made by Judge Wikeley back in February. As you’ll see from the postscript, things had moved on again by the time this piece came to print, but the key points I made here are broadly still relevant. And it features Monty Python and a judge riding to the rescue.

The next instalment covers the appropriate limit – when can requests be refused on cost grounds? Part V will cover whether information is held, before the series concludes (for now at least) with a look at the difficulties and ethics of who should be consulted before a response is sent out.