11 August 2009

Near East Group

Foreign and Commonwealth

Office

King Charles Street

LONDON

SW1A 2AH

Our ref: FOI 0613-09

Mr Guy Freeman

By e-mail: [FOI #15605 email]

Dear Mr Freeman,

Your Freedom Of Information Request, Ref: 0613-09

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request dated 30 July 2009 in which you requested that the FCO make available under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 any documents, reports, e-mails and minutes or other relevant materials of discussions, correspondence or other business relating to the funding of the Israeli NGO “ Breaking the Silence”.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provisions for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For central government the appropriate limit is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 3 ½ days working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it.

Yours is a very widely-framed request for information and we estimate that it will take us more than 3 ½ days to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested. We are therefore not obliged under the Freedom of Information regulations to comply with your request. You may therefore wish to refine your request to narrow its scope to bring it within the appropriate limit. One method of doing so would be to refine the search criteria by specific dates/ year(s).

If you have any queries about this letter please contact us. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications. 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint, or request a review of our decision you can direct an internal review request to the Information Rights Team by e-mail to:  [email address]. You have 40 working days to do so from the date our response has issued.

If you are not content with the outcome of that internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaint procedure provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

On behalf of Near East Group

2

Foreign &

Commonwealth

Office