2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF

Switchboard 020 7035 4848

E-mail [email address] www.homeoffice.gov.uk

Our Ref: 14199

Your ref:

Date: 23^rd March 2010

Dear Mr Elibank

Thank you for your e-mail of 20 January in which you asked if high resolution electronic photographs of Home Office ministers are held and if held, under what circumstances these may be released. The first part of your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, but the second point is not within scope of the Act. I am very sorry for the undue delay in replying and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

I am able to disclose that high resolution electronic photographs of Home Office ministers are held.

In the second part of your request you asked that if electronic high resolution photographs of Home Office ministers are held, in what circumstances we would consider releasing them. I would like to explain that the Freedom of Information Act gives every person the right to ask for information held. However, `information held' means information held in written or electronic form only. As this point does not ask for information held in either written or electronic form but asks for a statement, it falls outside the scope of the Act. However, I can tell you that we would not release the high resolution photographs held as they are for official use only. Photographs of Home Office ministers are available to the public on our website and can be viewed at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/organisation/ministers1/indexe42d.html?version=1

I hope this information meets your requirements. I would like to assure you that we have provided you with all relevant information the Home Office holds.

If you are dissatisfied with this response, details of our complaints procedure are within the attached annex.

Yours sincerely

Gillian McGregor

Principal Private Secretary

Annex

Complaints procedure

If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to the address below, quoting reference 14199. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.

Information Access Team

Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building

2 Marsham Street

London SW1P 4DF

e-mail: [email address]

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. If 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.

2

Mr Elibank

[email address]