Dear Mr Tai,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS PRESENTED TO CANDIDATES TAKING THE LIFE IN THE UK TEST

Thank you for your email of 22 July 2008 where you have requested information about the “Life in the United Kingdom” handbook and test. This falls to be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I would like to apologise for the considerable delay in sending this response to you. Unfortunately the time taken to consider the information you requested has been longer than anticipated.

I will answer your questions in turn.

Q1 The names of editors and of experts consulted during the scoping, development, and compilation of the “Life in the UK” handbook.

I am pleased to confirm that we do hold information in relation to this, which is enclosed with the response.

I should explain that the names have been redacted under section 40(2) of the FOI. This is because it is the general policy of the UK Border Agency not to disclose, to a third party, personal information about another person. This is because UKBA has obligations under the Data Protection Act and in law generally to protect this information. Your request has been considered in line with UKBA's obligations under the Freedom of Information Act. However, it has been concluded that the information you have requested is exempt under section 40(2) of that Act. Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act states that this disclosure would breach the Data Protection principles and therefore we cannot supply the information you have requested. The names of the organisations have been included and so I hope you will still find this information helpful.

Q2 A summary list of revisions (that is, corrections and updates of facts and statements contained in the handbook) since the “Life in the UK” handbook has been in print.

We do hold information in relation to this. Please see the enclosed document entitled `Amendments to “Life in the UK: A Journey to Citizenship”'.

Q3 The number of “Life in the UK” tests administered each year since the test programme started;

Q4 The number of “Life in the UK” tests where the result was “fail” and that where the result was “pass”, by year.

Please see the table below in relation to Q3 and Q4.

Q5 A list of all test questions in test database for the “Life in the UK” test.

You have requested a copy of all questions that are presented to candidates who sit the Life in the UK test along with the respective multiple-choice answers, including a reference to the correct answer.

The information you have asked for falls to be withheld. This is in accordance with the exemption provided under Section 36(2) (c) of the Freedom of Information Act (2000). Information to which this section applies is exempt information if, in the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, disclosure of the information under this Act would otherwise prejudice, or would be likely to otherwise prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs.

In this case disclosure of the information you have requested into the public domain would otherwise prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. This is because we believe that to publish the bank of questions to be used in the citizenship test would be prejudicial to the overall purpose of the test, as disclosure would encourage applicants to focus solely on learning the answers to those questions. This would undermine a substantial part of the purpose of the citizenship tests, which is to motivate applicants to find out as much as possible about life in the United Kingdom so as to assist their integration into UK society.

The use of this exemption requires us to consider whether in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption stated above outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. We recognise that there is a public interest in releasing the information you have requested to demonstrate transparency in the operation of Government, and that in particular there is also a public interest in disclosing this information to help inform the ongoing public debate about the integration of migrants into UK society and what form this integration should take.

But we have as indicated above also considered the public interest there may be in invoking the exemption to the duty to disclose. We consider that there is a strong public interest in not providing this information on the basis that these citizenship tests were established by the Government, following consultation with a range of external stakeholders, to encourage people to gain a broad understanding of the rights and responsibilities of British Citizenship as well as acquiring practical information about living here; we believe that the effectiveness of citizenship tests in promoting integration will better be ensured through applicants reading through and understanding the handbook and other relevant material, rather than simply answering questions by rote.

We have considered whether in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. We have concluded that the balance of the public interests identified lies in favour of maintaining the exemption, as there is a greater overall public interest in the Home Office not revealing this information to ensure that the citizenship tests are not in any way diminished in respect of both their effectiveness and integrity.

The “Life in the UK” test website (www.lifeintheuktest.gov.uk) contains a number of examples of test topics, as well as some dummy questions in the navigational tutorial. However, you should be aware that these are purely examples that are intended to help prospective applicants know what to expect.

Test questions will be kept under constant review with a view to assessing whether particular questions are too easy or too difficult, so over time questions will be replaced or redrafted.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the UK Border Agency sending a substantive reply to your original request and should be addressed to:

Information Access Policy Team

(Freedom of Information)

11^th floor - short corridor

Lunar House

40 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR9 2BY

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

On 17 October you requested that an internal review be carried out into the time delay in sending you a substantive response and the Information Access Policy Team wrote to you on 21 October informing you that the handling of your request would be reviewed. In light of the fact that you have now received a response, please let me know if you still wish for the review to be carried out.

Yours sincerely,

S Goddard

Information Access Policy Team

Freedom of Information