Lord Oxburgh's inquiry
Dear Imperial College London,
Professor David Hand of the Department of Mathematics served on Lord Oxburgh's inquiry into the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia. I would like to receive copies of all correspondence or other documents held by Imperial related to the Oxburgh inquiry.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Montford
Dear Mr Montford
This is to acknowledge receipt of your request below, made under the Freedom of Information Act. As you may know, the College must respond to your request within twenty working days, and sooner if possible. We will contact you again in due course.
Kind regards
Jessica Silver
Dear Jessica,
I was about to place a further request for information relating to Sir Brian Hoskins' involvement in the Oxburgh report, but I noticed that this earlier request is worded in such a way as to cover involvement of all Imperial staff. Could you please ensure that Sir Brian is covered by your search.
Having re-read my request, however, I realise that the scope is potentially very wide. If you would like to discuss how we might narrow this, please get in touch.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Montford
Dear Andrew
Thank you for your email. I had interpreted your initial request to relate to Professor David Hand's involvement in Lord Oxburgh's inquiry. I shall now also ensure that any information relating to Sir Brian Hoskins' involvement is also provided. Would it be acceptable to you, in the first instance, to keep the request limited to these two individuals' involvement? This would help to ensure that the request does not exceed the 'appropriate limit' of 18 hours work as set by the Freedom of Information Act.
Kind regards
Jessica Silver
Dear Jessica,
Could you ask Prof Hands and Sir Brian if anyone else has been involved. If not then I am happy to restrict to these two.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Montford
Dear Jessica,
One other thing - this is environmental information under the terms of EIR, so you should be considering my request under this legislation.
Yours etc,
Andrew Montford
Dear Mr Montford
Further to your request for correspondence and other documents held by
Imperial College relating to Lord Oxburgh's inquiry please be aware that
we have considered it a request made under both Freedom of Information and
Environmental Information Regulations legislation.
Please find attached the information that the College holds in relation to
your request. The first attachment is of Professor Hand's correspondence
which relates to his work as a member of the review panel. The second
attachment contains the attachments contained in Professor Hand's email
correspondence. The third attachment contains the correspondence provided
by Sir Brian Hoskins. Please be aware that some third party names and
contact details have been redacted as the College considers this personal
information and as such it is exempt from disclosure under section 40 of
the Freedom of Information Act entitled `Personal Information' and exempt
under regulations 12(3) and 13(1) of the Environmental Information
Regulations. Names have been disclosed where consent to do so has been
granted by the individual concerned.
Professor Hand thought it unlikely any other individual at Imperial would
have material relevant to your request as he doesn't believe anyone else
at Imperial was involved.
I am obliged, under the Freedom of Information Act, to inform you of our
complaints procedures in case you are unhappy about the way in which your
request has been dealt with. If you wish to complain about this response,
you should contact the College Secretary at the address below.
The College Secretary
Imperial College London
Exhibition Road
London
SW7 2AZ
Tel: 020 7594 5007
Fax: 020 7594 8802
E-mail: [1][email address]
The College Secretary must respond to all complaints within 20 working
days.
If you are unhappy about the way in which the College Secretary handles
your complaint then you may have recourse to the official regulator for
the Freedom of Information Act who is:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Kind regards
Jessica Silver
Dear Jessica,
Thank you for providing such a full response. Nevertheless I want to challenge your use of s40 to redact individual details.
1. In some places I can see from the context that the people named are likely to be senior and/or prominent people. Could you please check to ensure that you have not inadvertently redacted the names of such individuals.
2. In at least one place you have redacted the name of a report. Please could you reissue all such information unredacted.
3. In some places you have redacted all the details of an individual. This stops me from seeing which organisations were involved in a communication. Assuming these are junior people and are not covered by my point in (1) above, you should be able redact the email address in such a way as to reveal the email domain.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Montford
Dear Andrew
Would it be possible for you to provide me with the page numbers of the
emails to which you refer in your email below for each of the three PDFs
that I sent?
Many thanks
Jessica
Dear Jessica,
Here is the list as requested. I apologise for the length.
24 March 2010 15:02 Show name of sender or domain if not senior person
12 April 2010 11:24 show email domains or department etc, including in quoted email at 11:17
12 April 2010 11:33 ditto
12 April 2010 11:31 ditto
12 April 2010 18:05 ditto
12 April 2010 18:15 This may well be a senior person in which case disclose name. If not, show domain, department.
14 April 2010 17:50 details on the cc field
15 April 2010 11:51 details in cc field
15 April 2010 14:57 The name of the "head of the NCAR statistical climatology project" should be disclosable. Ditto the names on the quotes - these are people speaking at a press conference.
15 April 2010 13:41 Person addressed may be disclosable. If not, domain etc.
15 April 2010 21:00 In the text of the email - point 2. If this is my name it should be disclosed. Point 3 refers to the name of a study and should be disclosed. The other redactions under 3 refer to a senior person (head of a major inquiry) and should be disclosed. Further down see redaction under "I have attached as well the key plot from..." This seems to refer to a study and should be disclosed.
16 April 2010 14:50 "The contact with the RS was I believe through...."This is likely a senior person and if so should be disclosed. Ditto the next redaction. There is a strong public interest argument for releasing the name regardless since this relates to a question over the integrity of the Oxburgh inquiry.
17 April 2010 15:12 (Hand to ?) The redaction of the To: field seems to cover more than just the email address and name. Disclose the rest.
17 April 2010 15:12 (Mann to Hand) In quoted email check names are not disclosable. You have also deleted the name of a model simulation. Most of the other redactions don't seem to refer to personal information either, but to names of papers etc.
17 April 2010 15:15 Reveal domain of addressee. The name redacted in the main text is likely to be senior.
18 April 2010 13:42 Addressee may well be disclosable. If not, disclose domain.
18 April 2010 12:04 Sender ditto.
The same issue applies to the next few emails.
Hoskins
28 Feb 2010 12:11 Some of the redacted names are clearly senior people. Reveal domain for others
27 Feb 2010 1:10 "I'm also copying this to" - almost certainly a senior person. The attached email at 12:56 has been heavily redacted and some of these appear inappropriate.
14 April 13:57 Show name in text of email.
14 April 1:20 Show names of addressees where senior people. Otherwise show domains.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Montford
Dear Andrew
Thank you for sending the list of redactions you would like reconsidered
through to me. I will contact you again in due course.
Kind regards
Jessica
Dear Andrew
We have now reconsidered these redactions and now agree to disclose them
as you request. I have provided the names (or departments/domains as
appropriate) in the order in which they appear in the emails.
24 March 2010 15:02 Show name of sender or domain if not senior
Person
Andrew Garrett, RSS
12 April 2010 11:24 show email domains or department etc, including
in quoted email at 11:17
VCO [Vice-chancellor's office] at UEA
The following group of emails are as above
12 April 2010 11:33 ditto
12 April 2010 11:31 ditto
12 April 2010 18:05 ditto
12 April 2010 18:15 This may well be a senior person in which case
disclose name. If not, show domain, department.
14 April 2010 17:50 details on the cc field
15 April 2010 11:51 details in cc field
15 April 2010 14:57 The name of the "head of the NCAR statistical
climatology project" should be disclosable. Ditto the names on the
quotes - these are people speaking at a press conference.
Doug Nychka
Peter Bloomfield
Gerald North
Curt Cuffley
Peter Bloomfield
Bloomfield
North
Andy Revkin
North
North
15 April 2010 13:41 Person addressed may be disclosable. If not,
domain etc.
Prof Kerry Emanuel
15 April 2010 21:00 In the text of the email - point 2. If this is
my name it should be disclosed. Point 3 refers to the name of a
study and should be disclosed.
Wegman
Wegman study
The other redactions under 3 refer
to a senior person (head of a major inquiry) and should be
disclosed.
Joe Barton
Further down see redaction under "I have attached as
well the key plot from..." This seems to refer to a study and
should be disclosed.
Wahl and Ammann
16 April 2010 14:50 "The contact with the RS was I believe
through...."
Martin Rees
This is likely a senior person and if so should be
disclosed. Ditto the next redaction.
Phil Jones
There is a strong public
interest argument for releasing the name regardless since this
relates to a question over the integrity of the Oxburgh inquiry.
17 April 2010 15:12 (Hand to ?) The redaction of the To: field
seems to cover more than just the email address and name. Disclose
the rest.
Tom Heap (journalist)
BBC staff employee
BBC staff employee
17 April 2010 15:12 (Mann to Hand) In quoted email check names are
not disclosable. You have also deleted the name of a model
simulation. Most of the other redactions don't seem to refer to
personal information either, but to names of papers etc.
Von Storch
Von Storch et al
Wahl and Ammann
Von Storch
Von Storch and Zorita
17 April 2010 15:15 Reveal domain of addressee. The name redacted
in the main text is likely to be senior.
VCO [Vice-chancellor's office] at UEA
Peter Liss
18 April 2010 13:42 Addressee may well be disclosable. If not,
disclose domain.
VCO [Vice-chancellor's office] at UEA
18 April 2010 12:04 Sender ditto.
The same issue applies to the next few emails.
As above
Hoskins
28 Feb 2010 12:11 Some of the redacted names are clearly senior
people. Reveal domain for others
Martin Rees
Lord Oxburgh
Secretary of the Royal Society
27 Feb 2010 1:10 "I'm also copying this to" - almost certainly a
senior person.
John Pethica
The attached email at 12:56 has been heavily
redacted and some of these appear inappropriate.
Mike Lockwood
Harry Briden
Rick Battarbee
Harry Elderfield
Richard Friend
Prof John Grace
Prof Tom Swetman
Friend
Elderfield
Swetman
John Grace
Rick Battarbee
Trevor
14 April 13:57 Show name in text of email.
Phil Jones
14 April 1:20 Show names of addressees where senior people.
Otherwise show domains.
Peter Cotgreave (Royal Society)
A name I have decided not to disclose as googling it I can not positively
identify who it would be.
Bob Ward
Brian Hoskins
Imperial College press office
Imperial College press office
Alan Thorpe
Myles.allen
a.watkinson
Watson, Robert
John Beddington
--@Science Museum
Peter Stott
-- (Met Office)
Julia Slingo
M Hulme
Kind regards
Jessica Silver
Dear Jessica,
Thanks for this. Your response has led to me requiring one more set of disclosures - my apologies for troubling you with this.
In the Hoskins emails at p7, there is a series of emails - one final plus two earlier in the thread (12 March at 11:27, 11:14 and 11:07. Please could you disclose names of all addressees (or domains) as before.
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Montford
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