The Tightrope

FOIA section 14 can permit refusal of a vexatious request, with separate rules for repeated substantially similar requests. Keep each request distinct and evidentially purposeful.

Keep correspondence factual and controlled. State the record sought and the proposition being tested; do not let anger or accusation become the subject of the exchange.

Record suspected conduct as a line of enquiry. Identify the primary record that should exist and what evidence would falsify the theory. A missing record is not itself proof of concealment.

Separate personal data, public information, environmental information, archive holdings and specialist statutory routes. One channel should not be made to carry the whole dispute.

A subject access request is primarily about the applicant’s personal data. Separate that from third-party data, privilege and other restrictions before framing the request.

Use an issue number, date range, record class, custodian/function and land/title/planning identifier. Narrow requests are easier to search, review and audit.

Diary the due date and follow the published route. Preserve non-response as part of the record, but do not treat silence as proof of agreement, concealment or liability.

Keep separate: information-rights review, service complaint, data-protection complaint, land-registration decision and potential court claim.

The ICO asks for FOI/EIR complaints within six weeks of the final response or last substantive contact, and generally asks for data-protection complaints within three months of the last meaningful contact.

Regulatory action is not automatically compensation or title relief. Build the regulatory record while separately identifying the forum able to grant the substantive remedy.

Current HM Land Registry guidance provides a specific error-reporting route and a two-stage complaints procedure. The Independent Complaints Reviewer deals with qualifying service issues, not disputes about land-registration decisions or points of law.

Judicial review normally requires filing promptly and within three months, subject to shorter specific limits. Human Rights Act proceedings generally have a one-year period, subject to extension and stricter procedural limits.

Limitation Act section 32 may postpone limitation in certain actions involving fraud, deliberate concealment or mistake. It is not a universal reset: the cause of action and statutory conditions must be tested.

The ordinary Strasbourg application period is four months from the final domestic decision. Rule 80’s six months concerns revision of a judgment after discovery of a qualifying new fact. Do not assume it is a general reopening rule or that it automatically applies to the family’s 1989 matter.

Keep the Wiki evidence-led. Cite sources, qualify inference, correct errors and avoid presenting allegations as findings.

Map each alleged wrong to its own legal or administrative mechanism. Title relief, rectification/indemnity, public-law relief, compensation, human-rights remedies and heritage redress may be separate tracks.