Ships and Submarines Team
#2043 Maple 0a
MOD Abbey Wood
Bristol BS34 8JH
[email address]
Mr F Dawson
Our Reference: 113216-002
Request-34136-
Date: 21 January 2011
[email address]
Dear Mr Dawson,
Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
I am writing in relation to your following Freedom of Information (FOI) request:
Can you please let me have the annual reports from the Defence Nuclear and
Environment Safety Board to the Defence Environment and Safety Board for the years
2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. This is considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act 2000. I very much regret the time taken to respond.
Further to my letter of 23 December 2010, I am writing to confirm that the Defence Nuclear
and Environment Safety Board (DNESB) reports for the years 2008 and 2009 have now
been published on the MOD website, and are available here:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DES/OurPublications/HealthandSafety/Defe
nceNuclearEnvironmentAndSafetyBoardAssuranceReports.htm
Some information in these reports has been redacted under qualified exemptions
S.26(1)(b) (Defence), S.27(1)(a) (International Relations) and S.35(1)(a) (Formulation of
Government Policy). As these are qualified exemptions, it has been necessary to assess
whether the public interest is best served by release of withhold of the
relevant information. This public interest test has now been carried out, and we have
concluded that, in the case of S.26(1)(b), although there is a legitimate public interest
in public interest in the ability of the UK’s armed forces to operate effectively, with a
consequent public interest in the effectiveness of the equipment they use, the release of
details about the design and operation of UK submarines would provide information
about UK capability that would be of use to an aggressor seeking to target UK forces.
This would increase their vulnerability and reduce their effectiveness. We conclude that
the balance of public interest is in favour or withholding the information under S.26(1)(b).
For S.27(1)(a), the arguments for releasing the information are the same as those
mentioned above, but the release of the information would be likely to harm the UK’s
relations with those countries with which we collaborate on nuclear matters. Collaboration
on such sensitive matters requires us to conform to certain behaviour to avoid causing
offence to other nations and to maintain their trust. Release of this information could affect
future levels of collaboration and information sharing. This is clearly not in the UK’s
interest and so we conclude that the balance of public interest is in favour of withholding
the information under S.27(1)(a).
For S.35(1)(a), there is a public interest in the effectiveness of the development of policy in
the nuclear domain, particularly in relation to the submarine programme. There is,
however, a greater public interest in the MOD’s ability to consider different options, and
subject them to rigorous and candid assessment, to ensure that policies are developed in
a sound manner, taking account of advice from different parties. We conclude that the
balance of public interest is in favour or withholding the information under S.35(1)(a).
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-
commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other
reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright
holder. Most documents supplied by the Ministry of Defence will have been produced by
government officials and will be Crown Copyright. You can find details on the
arrangements for re-using Crown Copyright from the Office of Public Sector Information
at:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm.
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected
by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You
must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non Crown
Copyright) information.
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the
handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal
resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an
independent internal review by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 2nd Floor,
MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
[email address] ). Please note
that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on
which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of
Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your
case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the
role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's
website, http://www.ico.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely,
DE&S Policy Secretariat
