Here we go Again

Consistency of approach, between fee earners and across departments, has always been a franchise requirement. It tells an auditor something about overall management control and commitment to the standard.
Two recent appeals have been in Regional Offices where you attend on the day files and representations in hand and get your afternoon before the Cost Committee. (In one of these offices they copy the contentious documents – insufficient attendance notes etc. – into the agenda document).
Tuesday this week another Regional Office, at some distance from our northerly outpost, informed us that we could not have the files back before the hearing to allow us to prepare. They would however allow us to attend at thier office to view the files, in situ and they would make space available for us to do this. To be fair to the LSC on consistency this is an argument I’ve had before with another RO.
Further correspondence, and objections, later we are advised that they will photocopy the files and send us the copies. I nearly responded with an insistence on receiving the originals whilst they retained the copies but had run out of energy by that point in the day.
What they think we would do with the files is beyond me, we have also never failed to return files to the Commission by imposed deadlines.
I am alone in finding this ridiculous? And does it really have to be such hard work?
Perhaps consistency across ROs does not form part of the ISO 9000 standard.