FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) REQUEST

Your correspondence dated 15 September 2010 has been considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You had received information sent for a previous enquiry and had a few questions about what you had received:

Q1. How accurate is the data?

Q2. How and where would I obtain information about RAF/RN DTUS intake of Officer Training?

Q3. In numbers graduating from DTUS could you split it down into Direct Entrants and also ones from Welbeck/DSFC? Also for Welbeck/DSFC students who graduated from DTUS which Welbeck/DSFC entry they were from.

Answers to your questions above are as follows:

A1. We have a good degree of confidence in the accuracy of the data provided from 2005 onwards. Prior to this date the information was recorded by a third party.

A2. The Defence Academy does not hold records of officer's graduation data. In our previous attempt to answer the questions the Royal Military College Sandhurst (RMCS), Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) and the Royal Air Force College (RAFC) Cranwell were approached however only RMCS had the information available. In order to find the information pertaining to Naval and RAF graduates it has been assessed that the costs for which we are permitted to charge in providing this information will exceed the appropriate limit. This appropriate limit is specified in regulations and for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3 and a half working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under the terms of Section 12 of the FOI Act, this means that we are not obliged to comply with your request.

A3. Please find attached the further information that you have requested.

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, 2^nd 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,

AGannon

A A GANNON

Warrant Officer Class 2

for Director General

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