Complaining to ombudsman feature requirements

Introduction

Page to capture functional requirements for allowing users to escalate a complaint to an information rights regulator (eg the UK Information Commissioner, Scottish Information Commissioner in Scotland).

Feature 1 - overdue requests

1. Currently, where a response is overdue the site sends a reminder email to the requester. The proposed new feature is that at this point the requester should be able to press a button to "Let the [name of the appropriate regulator] know that [name the public authority] has not responded to this request on time."
2. The feature should not exist for requests made to authorities tagged "foi_no", these bodies are not subject to FOI. This is currently a tag used on WhatDoTheyKnow. Other countries may use a different tag.
3. Pressing the button would display a standardised email (that the user cannot edit) and an option to press "send" or "cancel".
4. The email would include a link to the request in question.
5. The feature would not be available if the request was hidden.
6. The feature should not be available if the request status is any of the following: not_foi, vexatious, error_message, user_withdrawn.
7. Sending the email should trigger a change of status to a new status called "[name of regulator] has been told that [name of authority] are late in providing a full response to this request.

##Feature 2 - appealing to the regulator following an internal review

1. The feature should not be available unless the request is in or has already gone through the 'awaitinginternal review status'.
2. The feature should not be available if the request status is any of the following: not_foi, vexatious, error_message, user_withdrawn.
3. The feature should not exist for requests made to authorities tagged "foi_no", these bodies are not subject to FOI.
4. The feature should not be available if the request was hidden.

##UK specific issues

1. In most cases in the UK the name of regulator would be the Information Commissioner's Office. Some bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and regulated by the Scottish Information Commissioner. All or almost all of these bodies are tagged with "Scotland".
2. The ICO's email address for complaints is: casework@ico.gov.uk

##Technicalities that we may not want to address

1. Schools sometimes get longer than twenty working days to deal with FOI requests.
2. You cannot appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner in [certain exceptional cases](if your request was to a procurator fiscal, in some cases, the Lord Advocate, or the Scottish Information Commissioner herself.)