Dear Sirs,

I refer you to the article at
<http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestne...>
and in particular the Justice Secretary's quoted remark that he,
"was now satisfied that these powers are being used in a more
focused way".

I request the following information:

1) the differences between how these powers are being used now and
how they were being used in December.

2) the minutes of the meeting between Mr MacAskill and Mr McCall.

Yours faithfully,

David Hansen

Dear Sir or Madam,

The information which I requested on 1/5/08 is now overdue
according to What Do They Know, although according to the
Information Commissioner you have a few days to go
<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...>.

So far you have not had the courtesy to even acknowledge my
request.

If I have not had any response by 5/6/08, the date given by the
Information Commissioner, then I will start on the process outlined
in
<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...>.

Yours sincerely,

David Hansen

Dear Sir or Madam,

You are now in breach of the Freedom of Information Act, as you
have not replied within the set time of 20 days.

Given that you have not even sent an acknowledgement there seems
little point in asking for a review.

If I have not had an acknowledgement by 13/6/08 I will take the
matter up with the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

David Hansen

Dear Mr Hansen

Please see attached response from Mrs Elizabeth Sadler to your FoI
query.

<<FOI0608.doc>>

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show quoted sections

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your "reply" essentially consists of the following sentence,
"Please see attached response from Mrs Elizabeth Sadler to your FoI
query."

That is not a reply, as I cannot read it.

If you supply it in a form which I can read, there is nothing wrong
with plain text, then I will be able to read and reply to it.

Yours sincerely,

David Hansen

Police and Community Safety Directorate
Police: Organised Crime and Support Services Division

T: 0131-244 42476 F: 0131-244 43989
E: [email address]

abcdefghijklmnopqrstu
Mr David Hansen
c/o e-mail address
[FOI #322 email]

5 June 2008

Dear Mr Hansen

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) dated 1 May. Your e-mail asks
for details of a discussion between the Cabinet Secretary for Justice
and Assistant Chief Constable David McCall of British Transport Police
about BTP's use of stop and search under section 44 of the Terrorism
Act. You also ask for detail of what changes have been implemented
following that discussion.

First of all, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to
you on these matters.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice holds many meetings with senior police
officials. Many of those meetings are informal and are not minuted.
The meeting you refer to was one such occasion; as such, no record of
the discussion exists.

Turning to the second part of your request, information regarding the
way powers of stop and search are being used by BTP now and how they
were being used in December is an operational and policy matter for BTP.
The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. You
may want to write to British Transport Police directly regarding this
request. Their address is Scottish Area Headquarters. 90 Cowcaddens
Road, Glasgow, G4 0LU.

Yours sincerely

ELIZABETH SADLER
Organised Crime Unit

show quoted sections

Dear Ms Sadler,

Thank you for your reply of 11/6/08. In that I am asked to believe
that there was no formal meeting between Mr MacAskill and Mr McCall
on this matter. Rather they had an "informal" meeting. Presumably
they just happened to bump into each other in a corridor,
recognised each other, sat on a sofa together and discussed the
issue. Having done this someone just happened to pass on details of
this informal chat to "the Scotsman" who misrepresented the whole
thing in their article
<http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/latestne...>.

I find that extremely difficult to believe.

On the second part, I find it difficult to believe that, given the
public statements of Mr MacAskill, you do not have any information
on the differences between stop and search last year and this year.

I consider this to be a refusal. Before I take this matter up with
Mr Dunion's office I ask you to undertake a review.

According to the calculator at
<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourR...>
I should have a reply on this review by 18/7/08. I have just
written a note to this effect in my diary.

Yours sincerely,

David Hansen

I attach a letter for Mr David Hansen.

Colin Miller
Scottish Government
Police and Community Safety Directorate
Police: Organised Crime and Support Services
0131 244 2847

<<FoI review - David Hansen - 4 July 2008.doc>>

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Miller,

Your "reply" essentially consists of the following sentence, "I
attach a letter for Mr David Hansen"

That is not a reply, as I cannot read it.

If you supply it in a form which I can read, there is nothing wrong
with plain text, then I will be able to read and reply to it.

Yours sincerely,

David Hansen

Dear Mr Hansen

I sent you a letter in the form of a Word document, since you did not provide an address at which I could write to you. I attach the text of the letter below. You might wish to make it clear in future that you wish to receive responses to FoI requests in the form of plain text rather than Word documents if you are unable to read the latter.

Colin Miller

Scottish Government

Police and Community Safety Directorate

Police: Organised Crime and Support Services.

7 July 2008

Dear Mr Hansen

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002: REQUEST FOR REVIEW

I have been asked by Robert Gordon, the Director General for Justice and Communities, to carry out a review of our response to your request for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which was set out in an e-mail of 1 May 2008. You referred to an article which appeared in The Scotsman newspaper on 30 April about the use of stop and search powers by the British Transport Police and asked for the following information:

1) the differences between how these powers are being used now and how they were used in December;

2) the minutes of the meeting between Mr MacAskill and Mr McCall.

I was not involved in considering your original request. Having considered the relevant papers relating to your request and our response, which was set out in Elizabeth Sadler’s letter of 5 June, I have completed my review and concluded that our response to your request should be upheld.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government does not hold any information about the difference between the use of stop and search powers by the British Transport Police (BTP) in December 2008 and any more recent date. It is however possible that such information is held by the BTP itself and you may therefore wish to write directly to the BTP at the address given by Elizabeth Sadler in her letter of 5 June. I can also confirm that there is no record of any note having been taken of the meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and the Assistant Chief Constable of British Transport Police, Mr David McCall, in April 2008.

Since the Scottish Government holds no information which falls within the scope of your request, I have therefore concluded that our response to your original request should be upheld. If you are unhappy with the outcome of this review you have the right to appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner within 6 months of receiving this letter. You can contact the Commissioner at:

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St Andrews

Fife

KY16 9DS

E-mail: [email address]

Tel: 01334 464610

Yours sincerely

COLIN MILLER

_____

From: Central Enquiry Unit
Sent: 08 July 2008 09:19
To: Miller CR (Colin)
Subject: FW: Freedom of Information request - Justice Secretary and Stop and Search on railways

Hi Colin,

Please see e-mail below from Mr Hansen.

Kath

x35013

Central Enquiry Unit

Scottish Government

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