Dear Sir or Madam,

Under the Freedom of Information Act I would like to request a copy
of the agenda of the visit to Colombia carried out by former FCO
Minister Kim Howells in November/December 2007 and copies of the
minutes taken at any of the meetings that Mr Howells attended
during his visit.

Yours faithfully,

Maire Daley

Dear Maire

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been passed to
the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal
with. They will be in touch with you should your request need
clarification.

We received your request on 23 February 2009 and will aim to respond
within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
email: [FCO request email]
... visit our blogs at [1]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

I made a FOI request on February 23rd 2009 which can be seen at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ag...

I understand that under the Freedom of Information Act a response
was due by March 24th. It would therefore appear that the FCO is in
breach of the law and I would appreciate an answer immediately.

I have also sent a copy of this message to my local MP.

Yours sincerely,

Maire Daley

Dear Ms Daley

Please see below an amended version of the previous email I sent to you.

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 23
February 2009.

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 21 April 2009. It
if appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we
will keep you informed.

The specific exemptions which are engaged in relation to your request
are:

- Section 23 - Information supplied by - or relating to - bodies dealing
with security matters;

- Section 26 - Defence;

- Section 27 - International Relations;

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make 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 of our 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.

If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.

Kind regards

Catherine Shaw

Catherine Shaw | Assistant Desk Officer Andean Section | South America
Team | Americas Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
WH2.323 | King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

* e-mail: [email address] ( tel: 020 7 008 2606 2 fax:
020 7 008 4276 ) ftn: 8008 2606 8 www.fco.gov.uk

______________

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Daley

Thank you for your request for information, which we received on 23
February 2009.

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 21 April 2009. It
if appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we
will keep you informed.

The specific exemptions which are engaged in relation to your request
are:

- Section 23 - Information supplied by - or relating to - bodies dealing
with security matters;

- Section 26 - Defence;

- Section 27 - International Relations;

Kind regards

Catherine Shaw

Catherine Shaw | Assistant Desk Officer Andean Section | South America
Team | Americas Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
WH2.323 | King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

* e-mail: [email address] ( tel: 020 7 008 2606 2 fax:
020 7 008 4276 ) ftn: 8008 2606 8 www.fco.gov.uk

______________

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Daley

Further to my email to you of 25 March, which I have attached for ease of
reference, I am writing to inform you that we need to extend our response
time limit to your Freedom of Information Request, 0154-09, by a further
10 working days, to give us more time to assess whether the public
interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in
disclosing it.

Therefore, we aim to respond by 6 May. If there's a need for any further
delay I will keep you informed.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint, you should write to the Information
Rights Team in the first instance. 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 of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
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.

As previously, if you have any queries regarding this email, please do
contact me.

With kind regards

Catherine

Catherine Shaw | Assistant Desk Officer Andean Section | South America
Team | Americas Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office |
WH2.323 | King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

* e-mail: [email address] ( tel: 020 7 008 2606 2 fax:
020 7 008 4276 ) ftn: 8008 2606 8 www.fco.gov.uk

______________

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Join the debate on the London Summit at [1]www.londonsummit.gov.uk

Visit [2]http://www.fco.gov.uk for British foreign policy news and travel
advice and [3]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk to read our blogs.

Please note that all messages sent and received by members of the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office and its missions overseas may be automatically
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References

Visible links
1. http://www.londonsummit.gov.uk/
2. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
3. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/

Dear Ms Daley

Please see attached.

Regards

Tony Kay

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

***********************************************************************************
Visit [1]http://www.fco.gov.uk for British foreign policy news and travel
advice and [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk to read our blogs.

Please note that all messages sent and received by members of the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office and its missions overseas may be automatically
logged, monitored and/or recorded in accordance with the
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of
Communications) Regulations 2000. We keep and use information in line with
the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to
other UK government departments and public authorities.

***********************************************************************************

References

Visible links
1. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/