December 2012 Archives

It must be Christmas ! Spy Blog is pleasantly surprised that this FOIA request:

FOIA: House of Commons - Commons Select Committee Reports - numbers & sales of printed paper copies

has been answered with a Substantive Reply, within the Statutory 20 working day limit, together with accompanying Excel spreadsheets.

We wish the FOIA staff at the House of Commons a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year !

From: FOICOMMONS@parliament.uk
To: [email address]
Subject: [FOIA reference] response

Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:14:44 +0000


Dear [name]

Thank you for your request for information which is copied below.

The information in this answer relates only to House of Commons Select Committee reports and does not include Joint Committee reports, which are normally printed by the House of Lords. The House of Lords is a separate public authority and can be contacted by email: foilords@parliament.uk.

All House of Commons Select Committee reports are published on the web in HTML and PDF -- http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/. These may be read and downloaded without charge and contain links to pricing information for printed copies.

The majority of printing of Select Committee reports is carried out by the printing and publishing contractor for the House of Commons, The Stationery Office (TSO). The information given in the annexes is for Select Committee reports for the 2010-12 Session which were printed in financial year 2011/12. Some printing is also carried out by the House's internal print unit, for example, to supplement stocks; these copies are not sold to the public. Information is not held on printing of Select Committee reports carried out on office printers.

Data in annex A shows the approximate number of paper copies of Select Committee reports printed by TSO, broken down by HC number, subject matter and ISBN -- the data set does not contain full titles.

Data in annex B shows the number of paper copies of Select Committee reports printed by the House's internal print unit, broken down by HC number -- the data set does not contain titles.

The Houses of Parliament Shop (formerly the Parliamentary Bookshop) sells some paper copies of Select Committee reports to the public. Data in annex C shows the number of paper copies of Select Committee reports sold by the Shop, broken down by HC number, ISBN and sales -- the data set does not contain titles.

The House of Commons does not hold information on the number of sales of Select Committee reports by TSO or the money raised from those sales.

You may, if dissatisfied with the handling of your request, ask the House of Commons to conduct an internal review of any decision regarding your request. Requests for internal review should be addressed to: Freedom of Information Officer, Department of HR and Change, House of Commons London SW1 0AA or foicommons@parliament.uk. Please ensure that you specify the full reasons for the internal review and any arguments or points that you wish to make.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

[name of official] Freedom of Information Coordinator Information Rights and Information Security (IRIS) Service House of Commons

Download the Excel Spreadsheets (.xlsx)

The figures confirm what we had supected, that very few people actually read the printed copies of House of Commons Select Committee Reports:

  1. most of the Select Committee Reports have a print run of about only 200 copies
  2. - far fewer than the 650 members of members of Parliament

  3. almost none of these printed copies are actually sold to members of the public .

This strengthens our contention that the Internet (web pages and email) should now be the method of Officially publishing Select Committee Reports.

The House of Commons (and the Lords) should desist from their technologocially stupid practice of pretending that the "official" publication of a Select Committee Report has to be "embargoed" and wait for the printed version to become available.

In order to send a copy to the the printers, there will already be an electronic version of the test of the report which will have been "briefed" to mainstream media journalists, or leaked.

Since the mainstream media does not seem to honour these voluntary "embargos" anyway, then Parliament should publish Select Committee Reports online on the worldwide web first on say a Wednesday, in time for analysis and comment by the weekend newspapers, with the small number of printed copies to follow as required the week after.

Perhaps a few more Members of Parliament might actually then read the detail of such reports than appear to do so at present.




FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Room 3.32
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ

E-mail: foi.team@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

Sunday 9th December 2012

Dear Sirs

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose the
following information:

-----------------------
With reference to

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm120717/wmstext/120717m0001.htm#12071774000516

17 July 2012 : Column 132WS

Detainee Inquiry

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke): In my statement on 18 January 2012, Official Report, column 751,announcing the Government's decision to bring the detainee inquiry to a conclusion, I said that Sir Peter Gibson, the inquiry chair, had agreed to provide the Government with a report on its preparatory work to date, highlighting particular themes or issues which might be the subject of further examination. The inquiry sent its report to the Prime Minister on 27 June 2012. The Government are now looking carefully at its contents and remain committed to publishing as much of this interim report as possible. I will provide a further update when the House returns.

Please disclose:

1) The interim report of the Detainee Inquiry sent to the Prime Minister on 27 June 2012, with any necessary redactions clearly marked and with an explanation of which FOIA Exemptions, if any, are being relied on for each redaction.
---------------------

Please provide the requested 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.

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 Thursday 10th January 2013 (allowing for public holidays).

Yours Sincerely,

[name]
[address]
[tailored email address for this FOIA request]

Freedom of Information Officer,
the House of Commons,
Department of HR and Change,
7 Millbank,
London,
SW1P 3JA

E-mail: foicommons@parliament.uk

Sunday 9th December 2012

Dear Sirs

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose the
following information:

-----------------------
With reference to the Commons Select Committees Reports, for the
last calendar or financial year (whichever is most convenient)

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/committees/select-
committee-publications/commons-select/

Please disclose:

1) The approximate total number of paper copies of the Select
Committee reports actually printed.

2) The approximate number of paper copies of the Select Committee
reports actually printed, broken down by Title.

3) The approximate total number of paper copies of the Select
Committee reports actually sold to the public and / or the
approximate total amount of money so raised.

4) The approximate number of paper copies of the Select Committee
reports actually sold to the public and / or the approximate total
amount of money so raised, broken down by Title.
---------------------

Please provide the requested 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.

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 Thursday 10th January
2013 (allowing for public holidays).

Yours Sincerely,

[name]
[address]
[tailored specific email address]

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.

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Watching Them, Watching Us - UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
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NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
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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.
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FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

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Power 2010 cross party, political reform campaign

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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."

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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.

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