BW could face charge

BRITISH Waterways may face a charge of contempt of court if it fails to provide information within the next month following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

BW was informed via a 'decision notice' from the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) of the possible action writes Allan Richards.

Maintaining canals

The ten page notice was served on 13th January 2011, and relates to a request made exactly one year earlier for information regarding the cost of maintaining the canals and the extent of maintenance backlog.

In responding to the request BW provided misleading information suggesting that maintenance backlog was actually falling year on year.

Internal review

An internal review carried out by BW's chief executive, Robin Evans, side stepped the issue of providing misleading information, but further claimed some of the information requested was not held by BW and would be too costly to provide.

This was disputed by the complainant who provided evidence of BW making reference to some of it in various documents published on its website.

Complaint

Following the internal review, a complaint was made to the Information Commissioner which was upheld. BW now have 35 calendar days (from 13th January 2011) to provide the information requested a year ago, on 13th January 2010. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making the High Court aware and the matter dealt with as contempt of court under section 54 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Unrelated

This case is unrelated to BW's double failure to provide information related to its September and November Board meetings (as previously documented in narrowboatworld) where the ICO has written to BW reminding it of its responsibilities under the FoI Act.