Mr S J Dowden
Our Ref: FOI 66739
15 October 2010
request-43183-97601839@whatdotheyknow.c
om
Dear Mr Dowden
Your communication dated 15.11.10 is conside
red to be a request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find below further information regarding the baseline from which the breadth of the
territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom is drawn:
The answer that we provided on the 11 October is factually correct. The territorial sea baseline
around the United Kingdom is the low wate
r line as depicted on the latest edition of the largest
scale chart of a particular area. As soon as th
e charted low water line changes by notice to
mariners, new edition of a chart or a new lar
ger scale chart, then the territorial sea baseline
changes. The only exception is the straight bas eline system as defined in The Territorial Sea
(Amendment) Order 1996
The zero vector isobath is captured electronical ly and is not maintained as a series of discrete
basepoint co-ordinates defining the territorial se a baseline.
can send you a CARIS file that contains the pr esent low-water line data on a CD. The standard
handling fee to produce this data is £25 + VAT, which will be waived in this instance.
You will be able to view this data on CARIS EA
SY VIEW that can be downloaded free from the
CARIS web site at:
http://www.caris.com/
Please note that this data set is only accura
te on the day of issue. If a new large-scale chart, a
new edition or a notice to mariners is issued th
at changes the low-water line, this will alter the
territorial sea baseline.
I would like to request your address for us to send you the disk with the information as described
above.
Your request for an Internal Review has been n oted and will be passed to my colleagues in the
FOI team based in MoD to undertake.
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
Christabelle Brimpong
Communications Manager
