Please note that this article is incomplete.
Part 1: Background
Briefing - Case Study: Scottish Water wrongly charging a Business.
For the full story, please refer to the section Water Charges - FOI's etc.
Following the raising of an FOI to Scottish Water, and the subsquent appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Scottish Water have still managed to evade providing the documented information that they consider might authorise them to raise an invoice for property and drainage charges for a commercial property which:
Read more: Review of the Scottish Information Commissioner's Process and Decision
The articles in this category include:
- The standardised FOI - designed to elucidate by what right non-eligible premises are charged for roads and property drainage,
- A typical application of it, and,
- The subsequent appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
- A Decision by the Scottish Information Commissioner relating to an FOI to the Scottish Government asking for the Applicable Law for the raising of charges in a Business Centre.
- A typical [erroneous] Decision by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
Introduction
There are four parts to this analysis.
- Time Line.
- About the information was provided.
- Whether the FOI has generated the required information, and a satisfactory outcome.
- Conclusion
Read more: Water Charges - Analysis of an FOI & Appeal Procedure
This article lists the correspondence relating to a Freedom of Information request to Scottish Water after they [erroneously] sent in a bill, followed by a letter from debt collecting solicitors - Messrs Brodies who are renowned for their [what most reasonable people consider as appalling] behaviour.
This was then referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner as an Appeal.
Read more: Water Charges - FOI to Scottish Water, Appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner
Dealing with a publicly owned firm such as Scottish Water and or their subsidiary Business Stream requires just a little bit more persistence than they show. Raising a writ and going to court requires two sets of information:
- The authority under which invoices for charges are raised. When they answer this question you will get reams of information about how Scottish Water et al were created, their rights and responsibilities. They will likely give you the CMA rule book. The CMA is a privately owned consortium - and thus they have no right to make rules which contravene the Laws, Regulations, Statutes, and other Statutory Instruments, or Provisions of Scotland - however, they do.
Introduction
The SPSO has made at least one decision in favour of the Water Industry demonstrating a lack of knowledge of the Law. It is Case: 201300100, Business Stream which is published at: http://www.spso.org.uk/sites/spso/files/decision_summaries/201300100.pdf and has been copied. Inserted comments are shown in red. The actual HTML code was copied on 24th February 2017.
In our view: firstly the decision is wrong because it fails to adhere to the law, namely Section 27 of the 2005 Water Act, and secondly, the SPSO erred in making a decision which required interpretation of the Law which is beyond his remit.