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Catholic Church contribution to Pope's visit
Ganesh Sittampalam made this Freedom of Information request to Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The request was partially successful.
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
16 October 2010
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
I understand that the Catholic Bishop's conference is responsible
for making a substantial contribution to the Pope's recent visit.
How much has been received so far, and how much is still
outstanding? Is there any schedule on which any outstanding
payments are due or expected to be received? Are there any plans
for interest to be charged?
Please also supply a copy of any contracts or other legal
agreements relating to this contribution.
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
18 October 2010
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been assigned a unique reference number (above) and 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 18 October 2010 and will aim to respond within 20 working days.
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Team
FCO
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
12 November 2010
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Please find attached a letter in response to your Freedom of Information
request of 16 October 2010.
Kind regards
Chris
Chris Bradley | Holy See Desk Officer| Global and Economic Issues
Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | King Charles Street |
London SW1A 2AH | 0207 008 4075 |
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
13 November 2010
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Thank you for your email. I presume from what you say that you are
claiming s27(1). It is not obvious to me why this would apply at
all given that the request is about financial arrangements between
the UK government and a domestic organisation. As required by
s17(1)(c) and s17(2), please can you explain what the prejudice
would be?
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
13 November 2010
I am working from home on the morning of Friday 12 November, returning to
the office in the afternoon. Please forward any urgent messages to
[email address], [email address] or call me on [mobile number hidden]
.
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
16 November 2010
Dear Mr Sittampalam
My colleague, Chris Bradley, has forwarded your email to me, and to which I am happy to respond.
The purpose of Ms Bradley's letter solely was to ensure that we have an additional period of time in which to respond to your original FoI enquiry. It is certainly not a refusal letter. As our letter states, you will be receiving a full response by 10 December 2010.
Even though your request was about financial contributions to the Pope's recent visit, Section 27 was chosen as the most appropriate exemption based on the documentation which we have been able to assess, to date. As you will know, the Holy See has the same status as that of an Embassy. It is therefore accordingly afforded the same rights as all other countries with whom the United Kingdom has diplomatic links. As such, the UK would be concerned about the release of any material which would, or would likely to, prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and any other state. Hence the use of s17(1)(a) for the PIT letter sent to you on 12 November. There is also the possibility that the use of this exemption could change once a complete assessment has been made of all the available material relevant to your request.
I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further comments or queries.
Graham Holland
IMG | Information Rights Team | Room SG124 OAB | Tel: 020 7008 1223 | Fax: 020 7008 1114 | Email: [email address]
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
16 November 2010
Dear Mr Holland,
Thanks for your email. My reference to a "refusal notice" was in
line with the ICO guidance on PIT letters: see section 7 of
http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...
I'm afraid it's still not apparent why financial arrangements with
a domestic body would be likely to prejudice your relations with
the Holy See. Please can you provide the full explanation of this,
specifying precisely which part of s27 you are relying on.
Please can you also confirm that you genuinely believe *all*
information captured by my request to be covered by s27, or
immediately release any information that is not so covered.
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
16 November 2010
I will be on annual leave from Monday 26 July. I return to the office on
Monday 9 August. If you have a specific FoI query, please contact Angie
Wilkinson on extension 1195. If it is a general enquiry, please contact
Jackie Till on extension 1125 or Katy Shaw on extension 1129. In extermis,
I can be contacted on my mobile number of [mobile number hidden]. If you are
responding about the KCCC cricket match against Somerset on Tuesday, 3
August, please send your email to my home email address of
[email address].
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
20 November 2010
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
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 'Catholic Church
contribution to Pope's visit'.
In stating that s27 applies and claiming an extension to consider
the public interest test, you have not provided a full explanation
of why it applies as required by the FOI act. You have also not
stated precisely which clause applies.
Additionally, your email of 16th November implies that you had not
even considered all the material that falls within my request and
therefore could not possibly know whether s27 applies to it or not.
Based on the limited evidence I have had so far, I disagree that
s27 should apply at all as this request is about financial
arrangements with a domestic organisation, not with the Vatican.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
22 November 2010
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Thank you for your request for an Internal Review of your FOI Request 0928-10. It has been passed to the relevant department within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for actioning. They will be in touch with you with an outcome.
Yours sincerely
Jackie Till
Information Rights
Information Management Group | Information & Technology Directorate | Foreign & Commonwealth Office
email: [FCO request email]
... visit our blogs at http://blogs.fco.gov.uk
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
25 November 2010
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Thank you for your email.
S27(1)(a) states that 'Information is exempt information if its disclosure
under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice:
(a) relations between the United Kingdom and any other state.'
Section 27(1)(a) therefore has been identified, currently, as the
appropriate exemption which is being considered by the FCO due to the
possible effects on the UK's relationship with the Holy See. The selection
of s27(1)(a) is based on consideration of all the material we have
available, to date.
I am unable currently to state whether all the information we locate will
be covered by s27 as we are still making searches for any additional
suitable material in order to be able to respond as thoroughly as possible
to your request. This will be by 10 December, as stated in our PIT letter
sent to you on 12 November.
I understand that, subsequent to your email, you have now asked for an
Internal Review into this FoI request. As will be appreciated, Internal
Reviews are normally requested when an enquirer has received a final
response to their FoI enquiry. It is unusual, to say the least, to ask
for a review into an incomplete request. To date, you have not received a
final response to your enquiry. Therefore, we will be conducting the
Internal Review once we have responded to this FoI enquiry.
Whilst writing, I was sorry to see that you saw fit to post my personal
details on the ‘What do they know’ website. I gave my personal
telephone number so that people I am trying to assist can contact me
whilst I am out of the office. Personally, I take a dim view of these
details being available to anybody to see, and possibly mis-use.
Graham Holland
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
25 November 2010
Dear Mr Holland,
Thank you for your email.
It's up to you when you conduct the review, but you may end up
needing to justify this to the ICO if it takes you more than 20
working days from the date I requested it.
I'm also afraid I'm still not satisfied with your explanation of
why s27 might apply; you have not given any details of the nature
of the prejudice that might be caused.
As far as your ongoing searches are concerned, you should have
completed those within the 20 day statutory limit. The PIT
extension is for just that - conducting the public interest test -
not for any other of your duties under the act. If there is any
material that is not covered by s27, then you have already broken
the law by not releasing it.
I might be rather more tolerant if I could actually be certain that
you would complete things by the 10th December deadline you have
given. However, given the FCO's handling of this request:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/in...,
I am rather skeptical of this.
As far as the posting of your contact details goes, I believe it is
stated on the footer of emails sent via whatdotheyknow that replies
will be posted on the internet. This is an automatic process and
not a deliberate act by me. That said, I also believe that that the
posting process does try to hide mobile phone numbers, so I don't
know why it hasn't done so in this case. I have contacted the
administrators to ask them to remove it.
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
25 November 2010
I shall be out of the office on Thursday afternoon, 25 November. Please
leave a message either by email, or on my telephone extension of 020 7008
1223. I will respond on my return to the office on Friday, 26 November.
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
10 December 2010
Mr Ganesh Sittampalam FoI ref.0928 10 final response.pdf
194K
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100901 LP to Archbishop Nichols.pdf
225K
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Appendix 1 100901 LP to Archbishop Nichols App 1.pdf
123K
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Letter to Lord Patten 2 9 10.pdf
22K
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Dear Mr Sittampalam
Please find attached a response to your Freedom of Information request of
16 October 2010.
Kind regards,
Chris Bradley
Chris Bradley | Holy See Desk Officer| Global and Economic Issues
Directorate | Foreign and Commonwealth Office | King Charles Street |
London SW1A 2AH | 0207 008 4075 |
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Ganesh Sittampalam left an annotation (11 December 2010)
Blog post about this here: http://www.comply-promptly.org.uk/blog/2...
From: Ganesh Sittampalam
12 December 2010
Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
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 'Catholic Church
contribution to Pope's visit'.
I have already requested one internal review of your earlier
handling of this request. This second review covers the substantive
response I received on Friday.
- You have not confirmed or denied whether you hold information
relating to various parts of my request. In particular:
- How much has been received so far?
- how much is still outstanding?
- Are there any plans for interest to be charged?"
- the claims of s22 and s29 are late as you did not send a refusal
notice specifying them within 20 working days of my request.
- Please confirm that you intend to publish the entire redacted
annex, and that you intended to do this at the time I made my
request. If this is not the case, then any parts that were not
intended to be published cannot be covered by s22.
- You don't provide any timescale for when you will publish the
information. This weakens the public interest arguments against
disclosure.
- You have not provided a proper explanation of why s29 might
apply. Please give more details of why disclosure of the data would
be affect the costs. Again, I find it hard to believe that this
applies to all the information in the annex.
- I still don't understand why s27 might apply to the annex you
have redacted. You need to provide a proper explanation of how
releasing it "early" might hurt international relations. It is not
enough to claim that it "may prejudice" relations - you need to
show that at the very least it "would be likely to prejudice" them
and *then* you need to carry out a public interest test.
- Your late response is based on the claim of s27, and therefore
you should have been able to justify its application to all the
information covered by the request. Looking at the information you
have now released, it is still not obvious to me why s27 might have
applied there.
- s22, s27 and s29 are all subject to a public interest test. There
is no documentation of any proper balancing exercise that you might
have performed, even though you delayed your response a full 20
working days to perform the public interest test with respect to
s27.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ca...
Yours faithfully,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
10 January 2011
Dear Mr Sittampalam
Please find attached a response to your request for an internal review of
the handling of your Freedom of Information request on the `Catholic
Church contribution to the Pope's visit'.
Regards,
Millie McDevitt
Millie McDevitt | Global Economy Group | Global and Economic Issues
Directorate |
Foreign & Commonwealth Office | WH.3.400 | King Charles St | London
SW1A 2AH
| [1]www.fco.gov.uk | Visit our blogs at [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
30 June 2011
Dear Mr Sittampalam,
Please find attached a letter about your Freedom of Information request,
FCO reference 0928-10.
Yours sincerely,
N Angell
Neil Angell
Europe Directorate
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966
Fax: +44 (0)207 008 8259. [1]www.fco.gov.uk
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
30 June 2011
Dear Mr Angell,
Thank you for your email. I'd appreciate it if you could explain
what would be "difficult and time-consuming" about scanning and
emailing the appendix, as that would very much be my preferred
option. How many pages is it?
Regards,
Ganesh Sittampalam
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
1 July 2011
Dear Mr Sittampalam,
I was looking in haste yesterday at some recent guidance on releasing redacted spreadsheets in electronic form and it looked quite a difficult process. But I now think there may be a way of doing it, albeit one which means I have to send you a series of large emails.
I'd be grateful if you could bear with me while I work on it and I'll try to get the information to you in electronic form as soon as I can next week.
I'm sorry for the delay.
Regards,
Neil Angell
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From: Ganesh Sittampalam
1 July 2011
Dear Mr Angell,
OK, thanks. A few days won't hurt at this stage.
Regards,
Ganesh
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
7 July 2011
Summary page.pdf
154K
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A State Programme.pdf
157K
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B State Elements.pdf
173K
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Neil Angell
Iberia Desk Officer/Deputy Team Leader
Iberia and Network Department
Europe Directorate
Room E1.106, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966 FTN: 8008 2966
Fax: +44 (0)207 008 8259. [1]www.fco.gov.uk
e-mail: [email address]
Visit our blogs at: [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
7 July 2011
C Communications Costs.pdf
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D St Mary s.pdf
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E Westminster Cathedral.pdf
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Neil Angell
Iberia Desk Officer/Deputy Team Leader
Iberia and Network Department
Europe Directorate
Room E1.106, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966 FTN: 8008 2966
Fax: +44 (0)207 008 8259. [1]www.fco.gov.uk
e-mail: [email address]
Visit our blogs at: [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
7 July 2011
F St Peter s Residence.pdf
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G Hyde Park.pdf
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H Cofton Park.pdf
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Neil Angell
Iberia Desk Officer/Deputy Team Leader
Iberia and Network Department
Europe Directorate
Room E1.106, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966 FTN: 8008 2966
Fax: +44 (0)207 008 8259. [1]www.fco.gov.uk
e-mail: [email address]
Visit our blogs at: [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
7 July 2011
I Oratory Oscott Birmingham.pdf
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J Internal Security.pdf
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K Liturgical and Bellahouston.pdf
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L Contingency Costs.pdf
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Neil Angell
Iberia Desk Officer/Deputy Team Leader
Iberia and Network Department
Europe Directorate
Room E1.106, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966 FTN: 8008 2966
Fax: +44 (0)207 008 8259. [1]www.fco.gov.uk
e-mail: [email address]
Visit our blogs at: [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
7 July 2011
Dear Mr Sittampalam,
I have sent you a series of emails with PDF files attached. The files are all the sections of the previously withheld Appendix 2 (Draft Budget) of Lord Patten's letter to Archbishop Nichols.
The file entitled "Summary" is the first part of the spreadsheet, and the sections follow in the spreadsheet in the alphabetical order of their file names.
I hope that you find the information satisfactory.
Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Neil Angell
Iberia and Network Department
Europe Directorate
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London, SW1A 2AH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7008 2966
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Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
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Alex Skene left an annotation (25 November 2010)
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offic...
Regards
Alex - WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer
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