Cabinet Office

The complainant, who is sight-impaired, sought to initiate a request to the Cabinet Office verbally. As set out in the FOIA section 45 Code of Practice (paragraph 2.5), a public authority should have procedures in place to accept verbal requests in such circumstances. He had repeated difficulties in accessing this and contacted the Commissioner about this. He raised concerns that the Cabinet Office was not complying with its obligations under FOIA section 16 (advice and assistance).  The Commissioner’s decision is that at the time of the request, the Cabinet Office had appropriate systems in place to record and action requests made in this way in accordance with its obligations under section 16 of the FOIA with reference to the section 45 Code of Practice. No steps are required.