SIT-Corporate Support Secretariat
Ministry of Defence
Main Building (01/K/47)
Whitehall
London SW1A 2HB
United Kingdom
Telephone [MOD]: +44 (0)20 7218 9000
Facsimile [MOD]:
+44 (0)20 7218 9948
E-mail:
[email address]
Reference: SIT/4/1
Mr Martin Butcher
E-mail:[FOI #9762 email]
14 May 2009
Dear Mr Butcher,
1.
I am writing to follow up my e-mail of 21 April in response to your’s of 25 March in which you
requested:
“Please list, for all meetings since 1992, the date, title and purpose of all JOWOGs and SUBWOGs
meetings that have been held under the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement between the United
States and United Kingdom”
2.
This letter is to inform you that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) holds information on the
subject you have requested. It has been assessed that the costs for which we are permitted to
charge in providing this information will exceed the appropriate limit. This appropriate limit is
specified in regulations and for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated
cost of one person spending 3 and a half working days in determining whether the Department
holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Science and
Technology Corporate Support has estimated that in order to retrieve the documents that you have
requested would cost in excess of the £600 limit. Under the terms of Section 12 of the FOI Act, this
means that we are not obliged to comply with your request. We have over 40 boxes of files on the
subject relating to your request and to go through all of these would take approximately 60 working
days.
However, should you refine your request for the information requested it is likely to fall within
the scope of the following qualified exemption(s): Section 24 [National Security] and Section 27
[International Relations].
3.
Your request is for information on the exchange mechanisms for the 1958 Mutual Defence
Agreement. You may not be aware but a similar question was asked in Parliament by Mr Nick
Harvey MP and was answered by the Secretary of State for Defence on 27 February 2009 (Official
Report, Column 1149W). This was followed up by a further question on the subject by the same MP
which also was answered by the Secretary of State for Defence on 23 March 2009 (Official Report,
Column 17W). The following extracts from the Official Report confirm the replies given:
Hansard, 27 February 2009 - Official Report, Column 1149W.
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the date was of each meeting of the
Joint Working Group since 2001; and what the purpose of each meeting was. [258424]
Mr. Hutton: The following Joint Working Groups (JOWOGS) and Specialised Working Groups
operate under the auspices of the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement:
Joint working group Title
6
Radiation Simulation and Kinetic Effects
9 Energetic
Materials
22 Nuclear
Materials
23
Warhead Electrical Components and Technologies
28 Non-Nuclear
Materials
29
Nuclear Counter-Terrorism Technology
30 Facilities
31
Nuclear Weapons Engineering
32
Nuclear Warhead Physics
34 Computational
Technology
36
Aircraft, Missile and Space System Hardening
37 Laboratory
Plasma
Physics
39 Manufacturing
Practices
41
Nuclear Warhead Accident Response
42
Nuclear Weapon Code Development
43
Nuclear Weapon Environment and Damage Effects
44
Methodologies for Nuclear Weapon Safety Assurance
Since January 2001 the following number of JOWOG and JOWOG—related meetings have taken
place:
Meetings in the US Meetings in the UK Total number of meetings
2001 118
62
180
2002 133
66
199
2003 133
58
191
2004 118
87
205
2005 168
75
243
2006 159
80
239
2007 207
91
298
2008 187
93
280
2009 (to date) 23
10
33
I am withholding further detail of the content of JOWOG discussions in the interests of national
security.
Hansard, 23 March 2009 - Official Report, Column 17W
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the date was of each meeting of each
sub-group of each Joint Working Group since 2001; and what the purpose was of each meeting.
[265112]
Mr. Hutton: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 27 February 2009, Official Report,
column 1149W. In the interests of national security I am withholding further information on the
nature or extent of work undertaken by these Joint Working Groups.
4.
Some information on the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement is already available in the public
domain and is therefore exempted from release under Section 21 of the FOI Act – “Information
accessible to the applicant by other means.” For example, information can be found on the following
websites:
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
www.energy.gov/
www.osti.gov/
www.sandia.gov/
5.
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the
handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is
not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by
contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB
(e-mail
[email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within
40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end.
6.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal
review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information
Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website,
http://www.ico.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely,
Richard John
