British Embassy funding for "Palestinians [to] better understand and effectively use the Israeli planning laws"

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like you to make available, under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, any documents, reports, emails and
minutes of meetings or other relevant materials of discussions,
correspondence or other business relating to the British Embassy in
Tel Aviv's funding recently referred to by the Embassy's
spokesperson as follows:

"£450,000 over 4 years to support projects in east Jerusalem and
the West Bank that help Palestinians better understand and
effectively use the Israeli planning laws to gain permission both
retrospectively for existing homes, and prospectively for new homes
on their side of the Green Line." [Source: The Jerusalem Post
newspaper, July 30, 2009.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?p...
]

In particular, but without prejudice to any other materials that
may fall within the parameters of the request as outlined in the
first two paragraphs, I would like to have made available the
following information (and any correspondence or other written
materials concerning the following):

* How the £450,000 is to be divided for each of the four years,
what the four years are, and which projects the money is going to;

* Under what procedures did the projects receive the money, and
information concerning the openness and transparency of these
procedures to other organisations;

* Under what part of the Embassy's budget was the money drawn from;

* Considerations of the Israeli government's opinion concerning
this funding;

* The validated consequences of this funding in quantitative terms,
for example, of court cases undertaken and won, number of new
planning permission requests submitted, and so on;

* Why the funding is deliberately aimed at "Palestinians" when
information concerning the planning laws in Israel would also be
useful to other non-"Palestinian" residents of the State of Israel.

If there are any difficulties in fulfilling this request, please
get in touch with me so that I may make my request clearer.

I'm looking forward to as swift and comprehensive a response as
possible.

Yours faithfully,

Guy Freeman

Dear Mr. Leinster,

Thank you for your update. I look forward to the information being
published as soon as it is practical to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Guy Freeman

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thank you for the update. I hope this new delay is sufficient to
bring this request to a happy conclusion.

Yours faithfully,

Guy Freeman

Dear Sir or Madam,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Foreign and
Commonwealth Office's handling of my FOI request 'British Embassy
funding for "Palestinians [to] better understand and effectively
use the Israeli planning laws"'.

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

First of all, thank you for sending me much of the information that
I requested.

However, I would like a review of the result of the public interest
test which led to your withholding some of the information under
section 35(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You state
that the case against disclosure is that "officials need to be able
to conduct rigorous and candid risk assessments of their policies
and programmes including considerations of the pros and cons
without there being premature disclosure which might close off
better options and inhibit the free and frank discussion of all
policy options". However, in this case the disclosure would not be
premature with respect to closing off better options, as the
funding has already been given. The public interest would also be
served not just through greater transparency, but in this case by a
deeper understanding of how the Government's policy goals are being
met, which is quite separate from the process of formulating the
policies themselves.

Furthermore, I don't believe that all of the correspondence could
have been withheld under Section 35(1)(a). For example, Section
35(4) states that "regard shall be had to the particular public
interest in the disclosure of factual information which has been
used, or is intended to be used, to provide an informed background
to decision-taking." Also, Section 35(2) states "Once a decision as
to government policy has been taken [as here], any statistical
information used to provide an informed background to the taking of
the decision is not to be regarded for the purposes of subsection
(1)(a), as relating to the formulation or development of government
policy". Are there really no parts of the correspondence that would
count as factual or statistical information?

Lastly, I don't believe that "policy formulation" can refer to a
funding decision. According to the ICO, referring to the White
Paper "Modernising Government", it refers to "the process by which
governments translate their political vision into programmes and
actions"; but "policy is unlikely to ... be about purely
operational or administrative matters. For instance decisions about
applications for ... grants are not likely to involve the
formulation of policy but rather its application".

Thank you once more, and I look forward to a speedy and successful
review. I do, of course, retain the right to appeal further to the
ICO if you do not release all of the information which you should
under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, but I hope
this step will not be necessary.

Yours faithfully,

Guy Freeman