Sometimes wonder if I am paranoid...

Previously I have stated that investigating a weapons fair is not an easy thing.  I don't think that people really want to discuss it.  I mean there was that FoI Request I sent to South Wales police asking them for how many officers were working it has resulted in nothing (That was sent a long time over 20 working days).  So as I stated I contacted Cardiff Council if they had any contact with any organisations over Cardiff DPRTE; they asked for which departments in the organisation.  Strange.  I honestly think that this was to trap myself and make the FoI request to big (Which worked).

So after some more digging (See previous blog entries) I found that the events was run by BiP Solutions.  So, me being the fellow that I am, starting the same digging with BiP Solutions.  It makes sense, if the council will not answer something specific, see if we can go slightly sideways. Guess what?  Same response.  Almost the EXACT same wording too.  Even when I asked them for the emails sent by the council regarding the event got THE EXACTLY WORDED RESPONSE.

So why are they asking me to do this?  When I sent the same request (About BiP Solutions) to North Wales Police (Don't let me down boys!), Dyfed Powys Police, Gwent Police, Ministry of Defence, Crown Commercial Service, South Wales Police, National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Government, none of them asked me this level of information (at time of writing).  I mean you would think that (With respect) they would be able to discern which department would do that contact.

Then I noticed something even more interesting…  A phone number if you have any problems…  Hmmm…  Now I work in a call centre, I also deal with lots of difficult legal problems too, so maybe phoning Cardiff Council direct would help me? I could ask why they needed the exact level of detail on this request or at least explained what I needed.  

I have phoned different FoI departments before and usually a nice chat sorts everything out (A special shout out here goes to Dyfed Powys Police and North Wales Police).  So I got through to the centre and basically asked to be put through to the FoI department.  After a long wait (Say five minutes or more), I was politely told that I had to email and that I could not speak to that department.  Eh?  There had to be a trackback of everything?  As I explained to the bloke, I have spoken to other FoI departments and they have been more than willing to give me the idiot's guide of anything I want. So why not on this one? (PS if that bloke who answered the phone to me is reading, you were one of the nicest people I have ever spoken to!).

How could I narrow down this request sufficiently enough so that I could get the information?  Remember my first FoI request was an organisational structure? :-). Well that helps doesn't it? So the question is, why are they - sort of - blocking me and everything else isn't?  Maybe they are trying to narrow the field to help them, I don't know.  I sometimes wonder if I am getting paranoid…

PS as an additional The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) got in touch with me about which organisations they were in touch with over DPRTE…  Turns out it was the Ministry of Defence, Business Innovation & Skills, and the Welsh Office… Hmmm...