Ben Addison

<request-1788-[email address]>

8/9/08

Our ref: FOI15/08/08-144246

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST - RSPB

Dear Mr Addison

I am responding on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to your 2^nd request dated 14/8/08 concerning information on financial transactions with the RSPB between 1990 and 2008 (original requests below). The original request dated 12/8/08 was considered too general to answer and required the clarification you provided in the second request.

NERC has considered whether there is any commercial confidentiality in the information requested, and whether this overrides public interest under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. NERC has decided there is no need to apply a Section 43 exemption (protecting the commercial interests of either party) under the Act for the information released at the level of detail supplied. I have therefore attached in Annex A, a listing of transactions (receipts and payments with dates) between NERC and the RSPB extracted from our central finance system. This holds records dating back to 2000. We do not retain financial information on the system before this date. Any information that identifies individuals has been redacted (removed) as personal information is exempted from release under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Section 40 - which protects personal information. I have included comments which shed light on the individual transactions where these were available from the system. Please note that some of these transactions are older than six years and therefore NERC will not have retained information held on individual invoices.

Information on NERC research funding is also available in the public domain via our Grants on the Web system http://gotw.nerc.ac.uk. This site holds information about the current and past research projects, and masters training grants, that are funded by the NERC through various awards. The site is searchable on a number of fields.

I hope this information has been of use to you. Should you require any clarification please contact the NERC FOI Office on the email address below.

If you are unhappy with the way that NERC has handled your request you may ask for an internal review in the first instance. You should contact the NERC Complaints Officer at our Swindon Office to request such a review:

Natural Environment Research Council, Polaris House,

North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1EU

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you then have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House. Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

C D Pelton

Freedom of Information Office

NERC

[NERC request email]

02380 596288

or 01793 411730

______________________________

Clarification - email dated 15/8/08

    Dear Mr Pelton,

    The Second Email is a clarification of the first, due to the large

    amount of work that could result from the first request, although

    if the first request does not result in excessive work i would

    appreciate the first request to be taken.

    Yours sincerely,

    Benjamin Addison

Request - email dated 14/8/08

Dear Sir or Madam,

please can i have all information concerning monetary transactions (any form of money 'passing hands' either way) between the Natural Environment Research Council and the RSPB, between 1990 and 2008.

Yours faithfully, Benjamin Addison

ben addison <request-1788-[email address]>

 Request - email dated 12/8/08

Freedom of Information request - information concerning the rspb

    Dear Sir or Madam,please can i have any information you have regarding the rspb.

 Yours faithfully,

    benjamin addison

Annex A