Download original attachment
(Word document)
This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Meetings between FCO and Colombian government'.

23 March 2009

South America Team

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street

London

SW1A 2AH

Tel: 020 7008 2608

Fax: 020 7008 2476

E-mail: [email address]

Natasha Morgan

Email: [mailto:[FOI #8586 email]]

Dear Ms. Morgan,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST: 0175-09

Thank you for your email of 1 March, received in the FCO on 2 March, in which you requested:

“a list of all meetings between FCO officials and representatives of the

Colombian Government in each of the past three years and minutes of those meetings.”

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 as presently formulated is widely-framed and I estimate that it will take more than 3 ½ working days to locate, retrieve and extract this information from files kept in the Foreign Office in London, at the British Embassy in Bogota and in the files of other UK Missions to, for example the UN in New York and Geneva.

In these circumstances we are not obliged under the Act to comply with your request. You may therefore wish to refine your request to narrow its scope to bring it within the appropriate limit.

To refine your request you may wish to consider:

  1. Reducing the three year period that you have requested information from;

  2. Specifying either FCO representatives from the FCO London, British Embassy in Bogota or multilateral organisations e.g. UK Mission to the United Nations;

  3. Rather than requesting records of all meetings from a three year period, specifying which information or theme is of particular interest to you.

This is not an exhaustive list and we would welcome any suggestions you may have. Should you wish to narrow the scope of your request, we will assess the new request and whether it falls with the stipulated limit of £600 to administer.

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's Office (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO 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,

Tony Kay

2

2

Foreign &

Commonwealth

Office