🕊️ A Formal Petition for the Restoration of Law: Complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office Regarding Westminster and RBKC’s Data Evasion
Date: 10 March 2025
To:
The Information Commissioner’s Office – Complaints Team
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Subject: Formal Complaint – Westminster and RBKC Social Services' Unlawful Withholding of Personal Records
Dear Esteemed Custodians of Data Rights,
It is with a combination of reluctant ceremony and unassailable principle that I now submit this formal complaint against Westminster Social Services and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), whose approach to personal data appears inspired less by modern law than by the cloistered practices of medieval record-keepers.
Despite submitting multiple, properly constituted Subject Access Requests (SARs) — each written with the kind of precision that would make a barrister weep — I have received either no response or nonsensical evasions that defy both the letter and spirit of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
I. A Timeline of Silence, Bureaucratic and Otherwise
I formally requested:
Access to all personal data held by Westminster Social Services;
Access to all personal data held by RBKC Social Services.
What I received:
Dead air.
Ghostly echoes of vanished professionalism.
Kafkaesque correspondence (on rare occasion) that suggested my request had been exiled to some back office shrine of administrative apathy.
This is not mere rudeness. It is a violation of law.
II. Legal Breaches: An Unflattering Catalogue
Their non-compliance is a direct breach of:
Article 15 of the UK GDPR (Right of Access) — with no lawful delay, no lawful extension, no lawful excuse.
The Data Protection Act 2018 — particularly in relation to timely response standards.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 — for the principle that public information should be accessible, not concealed behind procedural tapestries.
III. Consequences of This Institutional Withholding
This obstruction has resulted in:
Severe disadvantage in legal and safeguarding proceedings, where access to personal records is essential to defence and redress;
The perpetuation of inaccurate or misleading information, immune from correction due to concealment;
Ongoing emotional distress, caused by the galling knowledge that my own personal data is being sequestered by public servants seemingly sworn to opacity.
IV. What I Now Request of the ICO (With the Gravitas the Situation Demands)
I respectfully request:
A full investigation into Westminster and RBKC’s non-compliance;
An enforceable instruction to release all withheld information, in full and unredacted;
Consideration of sanctions or penalties for their unlawful conduct;
Guidance on further recourse, should they continue in their fondness for secrecy.
V. On Deadlines and Decency
As befits proper protocol, I expect a full written response within 28 days. Failure to resolve this will result in escalation to further legal avenues, including but not limited to:
The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman;
Direct litigation for breach of data rights;
And, if necessary, the European Court of Justice of My Patience.
Please confirm receipt of this complaint — and kindly advise which gallant officer of your esteemed organisation shall be charged with untangling this web of bureaucratic neglect.
🎀 Yours with due expectation of the restoration of lawful order,
Polly Chromatic
Founder, SWANK – Standards and Whinges Against Negligent Kingdoms
"Because even data has a right to liberty."