Naval Service FOI Cell
Navy Command Headquarters
MP 1-4
Navy Command
Leach Building
Whale Island
PORTSMOUTH PO2 8BY
Telephone: 02392 625081
Military: 93832 5081
DII: FLEET-DCS-INFO-FOI1
Our Ref: 21-11-2008-163829-002
E-mail: [email address]
6 January 2009
Pat
[email address]
Dear Pat
Request for Information – Supplementary Response
I wrote (via an email) to you on 22 December 2008 in response to your email of the same date
which expressed disappointment at the RN FOI cell’s inability to provide information you requested
regarding HM ships sunk in the last 35 years as targets or as artificial reefs. I undertook then to
conduct further searches in MOD records.
Having conducted further inquiries, I have to report that the information regarding ships used as
targets is not held centrally. While a number of vessels were destroyed as targets, and individual
examples may be listed in various published texts, there is and was no central lead area within the
MOD for weapons testing exercises resulting in vessels being sunk, and a single list of vessels
utilised for them does not exist. Individual project sponsors would have been responsible for such
testing exercises and these would have ranged across Fleet, RAF Strike Command, the Defence
Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the now largely privatised QinetiQ and QinetiQ’s and
Dstl’s previous incarnations through DERA (Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) from which
both Dstl and QinetiQ werederived, to the pre-existing individual Service and MOD Centre
research institutions which were combined to form DERA in the 1990s.
The Information Commissioner has informed public authorities that if, in order to respond to a
request, information has to be gathered over and above that which needs to be produced for their
own internal purposes, they are not obliged to do this, irrespective of the time it would take to
generate this information – and which would in this case clearly be considerable .
Regarding ships sunk as reefs, however, I have been advised that HMG has not sunk any ships as
artificial reefs. Commercial organisations may have bought ex HM vessels and sunk them for such
purposes, but MOD would not retain records on such instances.
I am sorry to provide what must be a largely disappointing reply, though I hope the response
regarding artificial reefs is helpful. If you are unhappy 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 Director of Information Exploitation, 6th 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 unhappy 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 the case until the 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.informationcommissioner.gov.uk .
Yours Sincerely,
Mike Demetriou
The Constitution Unit, a research body at University College London, is carrying out an
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If you would like to take part in this study, please visit the following link to be taken directly to the
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