19 February 2009

Near East Group

King Charles Street

London

SW1A 2AH

E-mail: [email address]

Tel: 0207 008 3416

Fax: 0207 008 2462

Our ref: FOI 0070-09

Kelly Bornshlegel

(Response by e-mail)

Dear Ms Bornshlegel,

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request dated 23^rd January in which you requested to be given a list of all documents held by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in relation to BG's Gaza Marine Field, BG's exploration licence offshore Gaza, or sale of gas from this gas field to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provisions for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For central government the appropriate limit is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 3 ½ days working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it.

Your request is very widely-framed and we estimate that it will take us more than 3 ½ days to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested. We are therefore not obliged under the Freedom of Information regulations to comply with your request.

You may therefore wish to refine your request to specific dates, for example information held for the period 1 January - 31 December 2008 You should also specify which country you are particularly interested in e.g. Egypt, Israel, Palestinian Authority or Hamas. Your request as currently worded involves a search of all our files over 30 years for all the countries you have mentioned, which is why your request is above the £600 limit.

However, by refining your request, it will not guarantee that we will be able to deal with it within the appropriate limit. Any refined request will be treated as a new freedom of information request.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications. 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint, or request a review of our decision you should write to me at the above address. You have 40 working days to do so from the date of our response.

If you are not content with the outcome of that internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaint procedure provided by the FCO. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely,

Jai Marong

Jainaba Marong (Ms)

Near East Group

1

Foreign &

Commonwealth

Office