Information Access Team

Ground Floor, Seacole Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF

Switchboard 020 7035 4848 Direct Line 020 7035 1022

info.access@homeoffice.si.gov.uk [email address]

www.homeoffice.gov.uk

Date: 27 August 2009

Dear Mr Canning

Freedom of Requests (our refs. 12341 and 12451)

I am sorry that you have not had an earlier reply to your Freedom of Information (FoI) requests of 12 June and 21 July.

In your e-mail of 12 June you ask which organisations are responsible for the issues which you have raised. I appreciate your frustration at not being able to obtain answers to some of your questions, but no single Government Department or other body has sole responsibility for the range of areas which your questions cover. Moreover, the fact that a particular Government Department may have general responsibility for a policy area does not necessarily mean that it is responsible for taking any action which you think should be taken.

In your second and third questions in your e-mail of 12 June, you ask who sets the powers of the RSPB and who is responsible for controlling and overseeing the powers of the RSPB. As I think you understand, this is not a subject on which the Home Office holds any information or for which it has any responsibility. No separate organisation `controls' or oversees the work of the RSPB in the sense of having reponsibility for its activities, although the RSPB is obliged to follow the law like any other body or individual. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is the government department responsible for the environment, food and farming and for rural matters. As a registered charity (in England and Wales number 207076, in Scotland number SC037654) the RSPB has obligations under charity law, which is the general responsibility of the Charity Commission. You can find more information about the Commission, including at their responsibility for making cahrities accountable, at their website at http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/tcc/ccabout.asp#4.

In your fourth question of your e-mail of 12 June, you ask who should be responsible for investigating a case in which you say that a bogus search warrant was used. This is a matter for the police. A colleague in the Policing Powers and Protection Unit of the Home Office has explained to Mr Ross Errington (whose separate FoI request and our response appears at the link which you have provided) that the Police and Criminal

Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and the accompanying Codes of Practice rovide the core framework of investigative powers for the police including the execution of search warrants. The Act can be found on the UK Statute Law database at
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Home.aspx. PACE Code B, which covers powers to search premises and seize property, can be accessed on the Home Office PACE Codes webpage at http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/operational-policing/powers-pace-codes/pace-code-intro/. Section 67(9) of PACE states that “Persons other than police officers who are charged with the duty of investigating offences or charging offenders shall in the discharge of that duty have regard to any relevant provision of a [PACE] code.”

In your fifth question of your e-mail of 12 June, you ask how someone who has committed perjury can be allowed to continue in an investigation. These are matters for the police and the courts and not something on which the Home Office can advise you.

In your e-mail of 21 July you ask whether a Mr Guy Shorrock had had a Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) check. Information about CRB checks is not passed to a third party. To do so would be in contravention of the Data Protection Act and such information is therefore exempt from disclosure under section 40 of the FoI Act.

I appreciate that this response is unlikely to meet your expectations. As I have explained, however, the Home Office does not have the power to intervene in the matters to which you refer. If you are dissatisfied with the way in which the police have acted and you have exhausted or remain dissatisfied with the Independent Police Complaints Commission process, then you may wish to contact your Member of Parliament.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting your complaint within two
months to the address below quoting references 12341 and 12451.

Information Access Team

Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building

2 Marsham Street

London SW1P 4DF

Email:

As part of any internal 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 would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Adrian Brook

Information Access Team

2

Mr Derek Canning

[FOI #13258 email]