The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a qualified exemption is engaged and the public interest test is being considered, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make all decisions within 20 working days, including in cases where we need to consider where the public interest lies in respect of a request. In this case, however, we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest test lies.
In your case we estimate that it will take an additional 20 working days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by 23 April 2009. It if appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will keep you informed.
The specific exemption which is engaged in relation to your request is section 27 - International Relations.
If
you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request
and wish tomake
a complaint or request an review of our decision, you should write to The
Information Rights Team.
Please note any request for an internal review must be submitted within 40
working days from the date our response was issued.
If
you are not content with the outcome your complaint, you may apply directly to
the Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a
decision unless you
have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by The Foreign and Commonwealth
Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this
letter.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Kay
Head of Andean Section
DO for Colombia and Venezuela
South America Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Tel: 020 7008 2608
Fax: 020 7008 2476
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Feiling [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx]
Sent: 23 February 2009 15:57
To: DP-FOI.IMG
Subject: Freedom of Information request - FCO-funded projects in Colombia
Dear Sir or Madam,
Under the Freedom of Information Act I would like to request
details of the following FCO-funded projects in Colombia including
project partners, annual expenditure, anticipated outcome and
results to date:
1. Project to improve evidence procedures in the Colombia Army to
fight impunity;
2. Projects for military justice reform;
3. Project to improving Colombian government's ability to
investigate forced disappearances;
4. Project to improve the capacity for investigative journalism in
conflict and peace issues with the NGO Foundation for Free Press;
4. Project promoting freedom of information development in
Colombia;
5. Project to strengthening capacity of Ombudsmans Office to
protect land rights of IDPs;
6. Project promoting Colombian MoDs awareness and promotion of
human rights;
7. Prison reform projects;
8. Any additional projects that the FCO has funded in Colombia
since 2005.
In addition I would like details of the start and end dates of each
of the above projects.
Yours faithfully,
Tom Feiling