We now await a reply to our Modified FOIA request to the Ministry of Justice, regarding locations of Official Secrets Act 1911 Prohibited Places declared by Order of a Secretary of State.
All we are trying to do is to find out where exactly the few locations in the UK are, where it is illegal to take photographs in public !
Text of the email:
Ministry of Justice
Selborne House
54 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW
United KingdomE-mail: general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk
cc: CLPUCorrespondence@homeoffice.gsi.gov.ukThursday 21st August 2008
Dear Sirs,
Further to our recent correspondence (copy attached), from [name of civil servant] at the Criminal Law Policy Unit, I am, as suggested, re-submitting my Freedom of Information Act request.
Hopefully this one will be possible within the £600 or three and a half day FOIA request budget.
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:
Please disclose
The Name and Location of any "Prohibited Place" declared, "by Order of a Secretary of State", either permanently or "for the time being", in accordance with the Official Secrets Act 1911 section 3 Definition of a prohibited place, subsections c) and d)
Please gives details of which Secretary of State, signed which Order, on which date.
Please limit these to just the Orders which are currently in force.
I do *not* want any of the background security documentation upon which the decision to declare a particular site or building to be a Prohibited Place was made.
I am interested in anything e.g. a map or diagram, which clarifies the approximate extent of where the Prohibited Place physically extends to, especially where the Prohibited Place only covers part of a building, establishment or site.
==========
For reference see:
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&ti
tle=Official+Secrets+Act&Year=1911&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0
&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&
NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=1069420&ActiveTextDocId=1069425&file
size=82163.Definition of prohibited place.
For the purposes of this Act, the expression "prohibited place"
means--[F1 (a)
any work of defence, arsenal, naval or air force establishment or station, factory, dockyard, mine, minefield, camp, ship, or aircraft belonging to or occupied by or on behalf of His Majesty, or any telegraph, telephone, wireless or signal station, or office so belonging or occupied, and any place belonging to or occupied by or on behalf of His Majesty and used for the purpose of building, repairing, making, or storing any munitions of war, or any sketches, plans, models or documents relating thereto, or for the
purpose of getting any metals, oil, or minerals of use in time of war];(b)
any place not belonging to His Majesty where any [F2 munitions of war], or any [F2 sketches, models, plans] or documents relating thereto, are being made, repaired, [F3 gotten,] or stored under contract with, or with any person on behalf of, His Majesty, or
otherwise on behalf of His Majesty; and(c)
any place belonging to [F3 or used for the purposes of] His Majesty which is for the time being declared [F2 by order of a Secretary of State] to be a prohibited place for the purposes of this section on the ground that information with respect thereto, or damage
thereto, would by useful to an enemy; and(d)
any railway, road, way, or channel, or other means of communication by land or water (including any works or structures being part thereof or connected therewith), or any place used for gas, water, or electricity works or other works for purposes of a public
character, or any place where any [F2 munitions of war], or any [F2 sketches, models, plans] or documents relating thereto, are being made, repaired, or stored otherwise than on behalf of His Majesty, which is for the time being declared [F2 by order of a Secretary of State] to be a prohibited place for the purposes of this section, on the ground that information with respect thereto, or the destruction or obstruction thereof, or interference therewith, would be useful to an enemy===========
Please provide the information, ideally by publishing it on your
public world wide website, or alternatively by email.Ideally this should *not* be in the form of a "copy and paste"
locked Adobe .pdf file, or similar, attachment.In the unlikely event that this information is not already
available in a standard electronic format, then please explain the
reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the
information requested, please provide full details in advance,
together with an explanation of any proposed charge.If you decide to withhold any of the information requested, you
should clearly explain why you have done so in your response, by
reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation.If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the
Public Interest, then you should clearly explain which public
interests you have considered, and why you have decided that the
public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the public
interest in releasing the information.If you decide to conduct a Balance of Public Interest
evaluation, for a Qualified Exemption, you need to estimate any
additional time which might be required, and to inform me of this in
your Substantive Reply, within the mandatory statutory limit of 20
working days for you to respond to this Freedom of Information Act
request.
Under Section 16 the Freedom of Information Act, you have a duty
to provide help and advice, as to how this current request may need
to be modified, if necessary.I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as
possible, and in any event, within the statutory 20 working days
from receipt of this email i.e. no later than Monday 22nd September
2008Yours Sincerely,
[pseudonym][pseudanonymous email address]
N.B. My Name and Address are available on request, but neither
of these are required at this stage under the Freedom of Information
Act, according to the Guidance from the Information Commissioner's
Office.
