BIS Ref: 01.04.05/8867c

Your Ref:

8 February 2010

Dear Mr John

Freedom of Information request 09/1954

Thank you for your FoI request of 29 December 2009 :09.39.

Further to my letter of 27 January 2010, I am writing to advise you that the time limit for responding to your request for information needs to be extended further.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 obliges the Department to respond to requests promptly and in any case, no longer than 20 working days after receiving your request.

However, when a qualified exemption applies to information, and an accompanying public interest is engaged, the act allows the time for a response to be extended, in which case, a full response must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances. In the case of your request, we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.

The specific exemptions which apply in relation to your request are Section 27 - International relations and Section 35, Formulation of Government policy. Both require the public interest to be satisfied.

I am sorry about the further delay to your request, but you will appreciate that I have to give all parties affected by the request a reasonable timescale to respond to any proposed release of documents. I hope to let you have a response by Monday 15 February 2010.

If you have any queries about this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please quote the above reference number in any correspondence

Yours sincerely

Patrick Balchin

Information Economy

Page 2

Peter John

via"What Do They know"

mailto:[FOI #25168 email]]

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