Partial Disclosure - Home Office Identity Cards Programmes team, no meeting diaries, no agenda, some aggregated expenses

| 1 TrackBack

The Home Office has finally responded, after 50 working days, with a partial disclosure to our Freedom of Information Act Request for:

"official meeting diaries, agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses involving Katherine Courtney, Stephen Harrison, and the post of Head of Marketing, from 11 September 2001"

They are claiming an exemption under Section 35(1)(a) of the Act, "the formulation and development of government policy"

Note that they still do not actually name the "Head of Marketing" for the Identity Cards Programme, which was advertised in October 2004.

We welcome suggestions about what to do next.

Should we re-submit a more limited request, should we request and internal review and then appeal to the Information Commissioner ?

The Home Office response:

Home Office
Direct Communication Unit,
2 Marsham Street,
London,
SW1P 4DF
Telephone: 0870 000 1585
Fax: 020 7035 4745
Textphone: 020 7035 4742
E-mail: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Web Site: www.homeoffice.gov.uk

XXX

[address]

6 April 2005

Dear Mr XXX

I am writing further to my correspondence of 4 April regarding your
request for the official meeting diaries, agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses involving Katherine Courtney, Stephen Harrison, and the post of Head of Marketing, from 11 September 2001. I am now in a position to provide a full response.

Official meeting diaries and agendas of meetings

After a careful consideration we have determined that the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure by virtue of section 35(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The diaries contain detailed information of meetings on various aspects of the Identity Cards Programme including the topic, who the meeting is with, and agenda items where attached. Section 35(1)(a) is applicable to the information as it relates to the development of Government policy, reflecting the formulation of issues by showing what has been in discussion, with whom, the frequency of which it was discussed and the dateline of the discussions.

In addition I regret that we cannot supply the full set of agendas for meetings held since September 2001, as to comply with your request would exceed the cost limit beyond which we are not required to supply information. The Home Office is not obliged to comply with any information request where the prescribed costs involved in supplying you with the information exceed £600. This limit applies to all central government departments and is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of locating and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.

Public interest considerations

In applying the exemption to information which Section 35 applies the Home Office has to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosing it.

We have carefully considered the balance of public interest test and
concluded that, in this case, it is in favour of non-disclosure.
There is on the one hand a strong public interest in disclosure. There is a public interest in members of the public being able to understand the workings of Government and how policy in respect of Identity Cards is being formulated. There is also a general public interest in the disclosure of information providing greater transparency in how officials within Government operate.

On the other hand there is a public interest to protect the integrity of the policy-making process, and not just the content of documents. Disclosure of the subject matter of officials’ discussions - even if anodyne in nature - could potentially harm the frankness and candour of future advice if civil servants and other parties felt that their discussions might become public relatively soon after an announcement has been made.

There is a strong public interest in officials being able to brief their Ministers appropriately with full and frank exchange of views for deliberation when developing policy. For Government to succeed in upholding that public interest, officials need to be able to consider all available options and so need to be free to debate these issues as many times as is necessary, and with all relevant parties in order to reach collective agreement. There is therefore a real risk that the release of this information would jeopardise the freeness,
with which officials will meet to discuss various options as part of the formulation of government policy on Identity Cards.

Travel and Entertainment Expenditure

In respect of the request concerning travel and entertainment expenses the information held is not recorded in a manner that is itemised for individuals. Therefore the information you have requested does not exist. However there is some combined information on the annual amounts for travel and subsistence costs that can be disclosed which would meet the public interest in transparency without it being not in the public interest to disclose. The
annual amounts are as follows:

2002/03 £4,655

2003/04 £21,085

2004/05 £36,725

No relevant information exists for 2001/02.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review. This can be done by submitting your complaint to:

Information Policy Team
Home Office
4th Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a further right of complaint to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely

AAA BBB

1 TrackBack

The Home Office has finally, after 50 working days, responded with a partial disclosure to our Freedom of Information Act Request for: "official meeting diaries, agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses involving Katherine Courtney, Steph... Read More

About this blog

This United Kingdom based blog has been spawned from Spy Blog, and is meant to provide a place to track our Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests to United Kingdom Government and other Public Authorities.

If you have suggestions for other FOIA requests,  bearing in mind the large list of exemptions, then email them to us, or use the comments facility on this blog, and we will see  what we can do, without you yourself having to come under the direct scrutiny of  "Sir Humphrey Appleby" or his minions.

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

email: blog @spy[dot]org[dot]uk

Here is our PGP public encryption key or download it via a PGP Keyserver.

WhatDoTheyKnow.com

WhatDoTheyKnow.com - FOIA request submission and publication website from MySociety.org

Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us - UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

FreeFarid_150.jpg
FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond
Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans
Data Retention is No Solution - Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

Save Parliament: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

Open_Rights_Group.png
Open Rights Group

The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

Tor - the onion routing network
Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

Tor - the onion routing network
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

irrepressible_banner_03.gif
Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

anoniblog_150.png
BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

ngoiab_150.png
NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

homeofficewatch_150.jpg
Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team." - does this apply to the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition government as well ?

rsf_logo_150.gif
Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

committee_to_protect_bloggers_150.gif
Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

Icelanders_are_NOT_Terrorists_logo_150.jpg
Icelanders are NOT terrorists ! - despite Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling's use of anti-terrorism legislation to seize the assets of Icelandic banks.

nocctv.gif
No CCTV - The Campaign Against CCTV

phnat-logo-black-on-white_150.jpg

I'm a Photographer Not a Terrorist !

power2010_132.png

Power 2010 cross party, political reform campaign

Cracking_the_Black_Box_black_150.jpg

Cracking the Black Box - "aims to expose technology that is being used in inappropriate ways. We hope to bring together the insights of experts and whistleblowers to shine a light into the dark recesses of systems that are responsible for causing many of the privacy problems faced by millions of people."

surveillance_72.jpg

Open Rights Group - Petition against the renewal of the Interception Modernisation Programme

Yes, Minister

Yes, Minister Series 1, Episode 1, "Open Government" First airtime BBC: 25 February 1980

"Bernard Woolley: "Well, yes, Sir...I mean, it [open government] is the Minister's policy after all."
Sir Arnold: "My dear boy, it is a contradiction in terms: you can be open or you can have government."

FOIA Links

Campaign for the Freedom of Information

Office of the Information Commissioner,
who is meant to regulate the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scottish Information Commissioner,
who similarly regulates the Freedom of Information Act (Scotland) 2002

Information Tribunal - deals with appeals against decisions by the Information Commissioners.

Freedom of Information pages - Department for Constitutional Affairs

Friends of the Earth FOIA Request Generator and links to contact details for Central Government Departments and their Publication Schemes

UK Government Information Asset Register - in theory, this should point you to the correct Government documents, but in practice...well see for yourself.

Access all Information is also logging some FOIA requests

foi.mysociety.org - prototype FOIA request submission, tracking and publication website

Blog Links

Spy Blog

UK Freedom of Information Act Blog - started by Steve Wood, now handed over to Katherine Gundersen

Your Right To Know - Heather Brooke

Informaticopia - Rod Ward

Open Secrets - a blog about freedom of information by BBC journalist Martin Rosenbaum

Panopticon blog - by Timothy Pitt-Payne and Anya Proops. Timothy Pitt-Payne is probably the leading legal expert on the UK's Freedom of Information Act law, often appearing on behlaf of the Information Commissioner's Office at the Information Tribunal.

Syndicate this site (XML):

November 2018

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30  

Categories