Quote:I've emailed them but only received an email on 20th October regarding this and saying they would reply by 11th November. Why does it take so long for a FOI request? I'm really getting impatient and annoyed now - I'm expecting to be fobbed off with some nonsense and no geo numbers...
It takes so long because the FOI rules give them 28 days to respond.
Given that these enquiries can be quite demanding and that they have businesses to run etc 28 days does not seem altogether unreasonable. What is unreasonable is when they come back after 28 days and say they are still looking into the matter. In my opinion the Information Commissioner should clamp down hard on such cases if he gets complaints, unless there are genuine reasons why obtaining the information really is difficult within 28 days.
When they come back they may try to claim the information is commercially confidential if an outside business operates these services for the university. Businesses are not covered by FOI requirements.