7 September 2010

Dear Mr Kemp,

Thank you for your email of 10 August in which you requested an internal review of this Department's handling of your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) about the City Status Diamond Jubilee Competition. You said that the delay in responding to your request was unacceptable and that the grounds for delay were not valid. I have been asked to carry out the review and I have considered the relevant documents.

I am sorry that it took as long as it did for the Department to send you a substantive response.

I am satisfied that qualified exemptions under the FOIA applied to information within the scope of your request. So the Department needed to apply the public interest test before making a decision about whether or not that information could be released. The information related to a number of other Government departments and they needed to be consulted. It took my colleagues who were handling your case longer than they would have hoped to consult all those who had an interest, but I am satisfied that they processed the case as quickly as they could in the circumstances.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Fairclough