Information Access Team
Information Management Service
Financial & Commercial Directorate
2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail: [email address] Website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Mr. Paul Perrin
Our Ref:
CR10917
[FOI #4953 email]
Date:
27th May 2009
Dear Mr. Perrin,
I write further to my email of the 5th May 2009 in response to your request for an Internal
Review into the handling of your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act (the Act) in December last year.
I have now completed a full and independent review that has covered the procedural
handling of your request and of the reasons and rational behind the decision in our letter
to you on the 19th January 2009. This review has been conducted on its own merits and
all areas of this request have been re-considered as part of this Internal Review
process.
I have noted from your emails of the 19th January and the 3rd March 2009 that you
requested our review cover the use of the exemption provisions of section 21(1) of the
Act. You also stated that, in response to part of your request, our case practitioner may
have misinterpreted the scope of your request and the specific information you were
requesting. Before I discuss these matters, I would like to briefly cover the areas in
which my review covered the procedural aspects of your request.
Having reviewed the information presented to me, I am content that your request was
progressed with due urgency and a concerted effort was made to respond to your
request within the twenty working-day timeframe set out in s10(1) of the Act. Our case
practitioner wrote to you on the 19th January 2009 with the substantive response to your
request. This letter was sent within the twenty working-day deadline provided in s10(1)
of the Act.
The Home Office has therefore complied with its duties set out in section 10(1) of the
Act and part IV of the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs' Code of Practice
issued under section 45 of the Act, and I therefore find no problems with the timeliness
aspects of handling your request.
The response letter sent to you on the 27th November 2008 complies with the
obligations set out in s17(1), 17(3) and 17(7) of the Act and section XI (para. 50) of the
section 45 Code of Practice in that our decision not to release the information you
requested (under the exemption provision of s21(1) of the Act) was clearly conveyed to
you pursuant with these provisions.
Having reviewed the response to your request and the decisions made, I am of the
opinion that the exemption provisions of s21(1) of the Act were not applied correctly. As
you have stated in your correspondence to us on this matter, the information you
requested was not regarding the assertions made by the Home Secretary but the
information used to support those assertions.
I have therefore decided to overturn the use of this exemption as it was not applied to
the information that you had requested.
In conducting this Internal Review, I have undertaken additional searches to see if the
Home Office holds information that might have been used by the Home Secretary on
which to base her decision to abandon plans to hold direct elections for members of
police authorities.
I can inform you that the Home Office itself does not hold the specific information you
have requested, but the information that the Home Secretary drew upon in reaching her
decision is easily accessible in the public domain. At that time there was a clear and
well reported shift in the climate of the debate around policing and rising concerns about
the politicisation of the police. In the Guardian article you mentioned, the Home
Secretary was referring to events that were in the public domain and commented on
extensively in the media. They manifestly affected the climate of the debate around
police accountability. As the Home Secretary explained at the time:
"Looking at what has happened over the past two months, there has been a
fundamental shift in the way people think about the politicisation of the police. I
put that down to the London mayor's intervention in the resignation of Sir Ian
Blair and the events surrounding the Damian Green affair. I think it is right to
step back to focus on the radical changes we are already making to the police at
the neighbourhood level and to think about what recent events mean for the
politicisation of the police."
I would like to assure you that a thorough search has been conducted and that I am
confident that we do not hold the information that you asked for, but the events
themselves are available to you in the public domain. Please feel free to contact me if
you have any questions concerning this Internal Review.
Thank you for your interest in the Home Office.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Lister
Information Access Consultant
Information Access Team
ANNEX A – Your Right of Complaint
If you are stil dissatisfied with this decision you may make an application to the
Information Commissioner for a decision on whether the request and this review have
been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.
For information on how to make an application to the Information Commissioner’s
Office, please visit their website at http://www.ico.gov.uk or write to:
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
