Dear Mr Robinson,

Request for Information

Thank you for your email of 3 December 2008, in which you requested information on whether a trial in the Technology Construction Court, (TCC), can take place without the filing of form TCC / CM1 by either party. Your request has been treated as a request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA) 2000.

I have made enquiries of the TCC and have been advised that the TCC guidance states that, “all parties are expected to complete a detailed response to the case management information sheet sent out by the Registry”.

The purpose of the form CM1 is to allow the judge to formulate their directions at the Case Management hearing. If no information is received from one or either of the parties then it simply means that the judge would have to extract the required information from the parties at the hearing in order to make directions that suit both of the parties. Further, the rules do not state that a case cannot proceed without form CM1 form being lodged prior to a hearing.

Finally, on this matter, on the reverse of form CM1 it states that, “if you fail to return the form by the date given, the judge may give directions or make any order he thinks fit”.

I hope that this answers your query.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: Data Access and Compliance Unit, 1^st Floor - Area C, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

If you have any queries about your request please contact me.

Yours sincerely.

Luigi Leo

Freedom of Information User Survey:

The Constitution Unit, a research body at University College London, is carrying out an independent evaluative study of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in co-operation with a number of public authorities, including the Ministry of Justice. An important part of the evaluation process is gathering the experiences and opinions of FOI requesters like you. Any information you provide will only be seen by the Constitution Unit and will be handled in accordance with its privacy policy explained in the survey. The Ministry of Justice will only see the published results: no individual responses will be visible to us and your participation will have no effect on your future dealings with the Ministry.

If you would like to take part in this study, please click the following link to be taken directly to the survey: tinyurl.com/2q4ll8. Or, if you prefer, contact Ben Worthy at [email address] or on 020 7679 4974 to ask more about the study.

If you have filled this survey out before, we invite you to fill it out again in light of the recent response to your request.

1