The Treasury has rejected two FoI requests relating to the Manx Development Corporation, branding them “vexatious”.
The requests, concerning the multi-million-pound refurbishment of the former nurses’ home, Thie Clag, were refused under the Freedom of Information Act 2015.
In its responses the Treasury pointed out that a public authority “may refuse to give the information requested if the request for information is vexatious, malicious, frivolous, misconceived or lacking in substance”.
In doing this, it said identified it had identified “factors indicating the request is vexatious”.
Seven
It added: “The requests have been frequent and overlapping. As previously stated, there have been a total of seven requests to Treasury in relation to MDC, all of which were received within a two week period and six of the requests were received in a single day.”
And said: “When taking these requests into account this has the effect of creating a burden that the authority can’t reasonably be expected to manage.”
However, the Treasury offered a way forward, stating: “we can however process each request, under the Act, one at a time, once a response has been issued for the previous one”.
The applicant can also request an internal review and subsequent appeal to the Information Commissioner.
8 Comments