The following is a simple FOIA request, asking for a slightly more detailed breakdown of some published statistical totals, which are of significance in the debate about Identity Cards, the National Identity Register and Biometric Passports etc.
It will be interesting to see how this pseudonymous request is treated, following the new Guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office.
See ICO Guidance on FOIA requests name and address for correspondence - another attack on Anonymity
Text of the FOIA request:
Watching Them, Watching Us
24 January 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose:
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A more detailed breakdown of the numbers of forged, faked or
falsely applied for United Kingdom passports, compared with the
numbers of Foreign passports, seized by the Operation Maxim
specialist crime unit.The current Operation Maxim web page
http://www.met.police.uk/op_maxim/
only shows totals for all passports seized.
April 2006 - April 2007:- 1006 April 2007 - April 2008:- 1911
A previous version of the web page listed a total of 394 Passports
seized in 2004.If you have figures to hand for the nationalities of the Foreign
passports seized, and statistics for the year 2005, that would also
be of interest, but my primary request is for the split between the
numbers of United Kingdom and Foreign passports seized.--------
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, for a Qualified Exemption, then you should clearly
explain which public interest(s) you have considered, and why you
have decided that the public interest in maintaining the
Exemption(s) outweighs the public interest in releasing the
information.If you decide to conduct a Balance of Public Interest evaluation,
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 Friday 20th February
2009Yours faithfully,
Watching Them, Watching Us