Two weeks ago I blogged about Michael Gove claiming he had an apology “confirmed in writing” from Action Fraud. The apology stated that Action Fraud were at fault for the mislabelling of a phone call about school fraud as ‘information’ rather than a ‘crime’ report.
I asked via an FOI request to see the apology. The DfE sent back a press release. I emailed (and rang) to check if the press release was the actual confirmed apology as described by Gove. The DfE reply suggests that it was. This strikes me as odd, but I’m willing to believe this really is the information the DfE holds.
Unfortunately, this still doesn’t explain precisely how the information came to be mislabelled. TWICE. (The first time when the phone call went to Action Fraud, the second time when it was checked over by the National Intel Bureau). Nor how Action Fraud came to review the documentation after Newsnight. (Did someone watching at home on the Friday night suddenly realise that they’d made a mistake?) But those are not questions for the DfE to answer.
On the upside, the Home Office is also FOI-able….
Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber.