Damien Green and recipet of Home Office documents

Ben Jones made this Freedom of Information request to House of Commons

The request was refused by House of Commons.

From: Ben Jones

16 April 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

Although not charged, it is clear that Damien Green was in receipt
of classified Home Office information.

Please release a copy of all Home Office documents received from
the now sacked Christopher Galley, and all emails between Mr Green
and Mr Galley

Yours faithfully,

Ben Jones

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From: FOICOMMONS
House of Commons

17 April 2009

Dear Mr Jones,

Thank you for your email which was received today, 17 April 2009.

The House of Commons does not hold or have access to the information you
are seeking.

You might consider directing your request to the Home Office
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/fr....

Mandy Kelly
Freedom of Information Assistant

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From: Ben Jones

17 April 2009

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 House of Commons'
handling of my FOI request 'Damien Green and receipt of Home Office
documents'.

I do no accept the fact that you do not hold this information, Mr
Green has admited that he was in receipt of Home Office information
and I would assume therfore would still hold it in some form. If
not I would like to refine my request as follows.

Please release copies of all correspondence bettween Mr Galley and
Mr Damien Green MP, between the date Mr Galley was first emplyed by
the Home Office and the arrest of both gentlemen by the Met Police.

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

Yours sincerely,

Ben Jones

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M Bimmler left an annotation (19 April 2009)

Ben, you might want to note that you can only ask the House of Commons authorities what file *they* hold, not what files individual MPs and their private offices hold, which are not covered by the FOI Act. Why do you think that the central House authorities would hold correspondence between a Member and a third party?

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From: KELLY, Mandy
House of Commons

20 April 2009

Dear Mr Jones

I will be happy to submit this to an internal review but before I do so
perhaps I could set the issue out for you in a bit more detail.

The FOI Act applies to public authorities. These bodies are described
and listed in the schedules to the Act itself. While the House of
Commons is listed as a public authority, individual MPs are not. This
means that information held by the House of Commons as an institution is
subject to the access rights set out in the FOI Act (this would include
information relating to business and proceedings in the chambers and
committees and about the administration and running of the House), but
there is not a similar right of access to information held by MPs in
their offices and constituencies. In addition, staff of the House do not
have access to information held by MPs. For further information please
refer to the following decision notice issued by the Information
Tribunal where this issue is discussed in some depth (starting at
paragraph 33).

http://www.informationtribunal.gov.uk/DB...

The Home office is a public authority under the FOI Act - however, the
House of Commons does not have access to the information they hold.
Details were provided about how you might approach them for the
information you require.

I hope that this is of assistance - please let me know if you would like
to proceed further with your request for a review

Yours sincerely

Bob Castle

Bob Castle
Head of Information Rights and Information Security House of Commons

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Ben Jones left an annotation (30 April 2009)

This therfore suggests that that the FOI Act should also apply to information held by MPs Mr Green has all but admitted that he illegally obtained information provided to hm by a Home office employee - this in my view should come under the act.

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
House of Commons only: