Adherence to the requirements of the EU Pilot

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

I refer to the EU Pilot Project Case 197/08/08/ MARK - DCLG; Market
Services - Conformity of the Architects Regulation 2008.

When applying Community Law (Applying Community law [COM(2007) 502
final]), it is the Community's view that the EU Pilot project,
which has been operating since April 2008, has had a measure of
success. It has the aim of providing quicker and fuller answers to
questions, and solutions to problems arising in the application of
EU laws – particularly those raised by citizens or businesses –
requiring confirmation of the factual or legal position in a Member
State with a view to improved communication and cooperation between
Commission services and Member State authorities on issues
concerning the application of EU law.

This particular Pilot project was one of the first to be instituted
and it is disappointing that, unlike many others, it has yet to be
concluded.

I would be grateful therefore if you would provide me with the
following information.

1. Please provide all the dates when the European Commission has
requested information or other action by the United Kingdom under
this Pilot project.

2. For each request so made, please state whether the United
Kingdom was requested to reply within a given time. (If this is a
matter of general application of Pilot procedure, please state it.)

3. For each request so made, please state when it was that the
United Kingdom provided its full and substantive reply, providing
the information requested or giving assurances concerning future
action.

4. In every instance where assurances have been given concerning
future action, please outline the nature of the assurance given and
describe the intended action and the dates by which such action
would be taken. With this information, please do not omit to
provide information concerning the public consultation that was
promised to take place some time ago, but which has yet to
commence.

Yours faithfully,

Ian Salisbury

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for
Communities and Local Government's handling of my FOI request
'Adherence to the requirements of the EU Pilot'.

My complaint is based upon the misapplication of section 27(1)(b)
of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I accept that information
is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or be
likely to, prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and the
European Commission. However, the information that I have asked for
does not include any information that is not expressly and
explicitly known by both parties to the correspondence.

The disclosure of this information cannot therefore by any
ascertainment prejudice relations because there is nothing that
could possibly be disclosed by DCLG that is not already known by
the EC.

Please review this request and provide the information promptly as
the Act requires. Please do not, as appears to be your practice,
extend the period for reply to the full extent of the permissible
period without good reason.

If there is good reason to delay the production of this information
to the full extent of the permissible period, please kindly
disclose that reason or reasons to me as part of this request for
information.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ad...

Yours faithfully,

Ian Salisbury

Dear Richard,

Thank you for the information you have provided. I disagree that
DCLG is entitled to any exemption and I have therefore asked for
your reply to be reviewed.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Salisbury