Dear Mr Moore,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your email of 10 December 2009, in which you asked for the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Identities of those individuals who, whether on MoJ payroll or in other public sector posts, has a mark on the Sex Offenders Register. I refer specifically to local councillors, Social/Child Services, Corporate Enforcement Officers, right down to sanitation technicians.

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to human resources requests in the MoJ and your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I should start by explaining that I am only able to comment on behalf of the MoJ and not on any public sector posts outside the Ministry. You may however wish to direct your request to the National Police Improvement Authority (NPIA) as they may hold some of the information you are seeking. Please be aware that the information is likely to be withheld as there is a duty under the Data Protection Act to protect personal information.

The information you have requested is not held centrally.

Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), exempts a public authority from its obligations under Section1(1) - the duty to confirm if the information being requested is held, if to provide that confirmation alone would exceed the cost limit. For central government this is set at £600. That represents the estimated costs of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information. I am unfortunately therefore unable to confirm or deny whether we hold information falling within the scope of your request.

You may, however, wish to narrow the scope of your request in order to try and bring it within the cost limit. For example, you may wish to request information for a particular business area of interest to establish whether any information is held. Please note that should you break your request down into a series of smaller requests, we might, depending on the circumstances of the case, decline to answer if the aggregated cost of complying exceeds £600, as permitted by the Fees Regulations. You may also wish to be aware that because of the sensitivity of this information and our obligations under the Data Protection Act, we may not be able to confirm or deny we hold the information.

You may wish to know that the MoJ carries out a Disclosure Scotland Check on all permanent and fixed term staff to establish whether they have any criminal records. Criminal Records Bureau Checks and security clearance on both permanent and fixed term staff depending on the job role. These checks adhere to the guidance set out in our HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard (or BBPSS) which is a Cabinet Office document last reviewed in March 2009. For your reference, I have provided the link: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/45160/hmg_bpss.pdf

I am sorry that on this occasion I have not been able to be of more assistance.

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the MoJ has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6^th Floor, Zone B

Post point 6.25

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

e-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Yours sincerely

Fay Carradine