Records held on UFO related incidents.

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Dear Sir,

I am writing concerning your Freedom of Information request asking to see
files that contain a wide range of UFO-related documents covering the
years 1978-2002. Your request has been passed to this Department as we are
the focal point within the Ministry of Defence for correspondence relating
to UFOs.

First, it may be helpful if I explain that the Ministry of Defence (MOD)
examines any reports of `unidentified flying objects' it receives solely
to establish whether what was seen might have some defence significance;
namely, whether there is any evidence that the United Kingdom's airspace
might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity.
Unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom from
an external source, and to date no `UFO' has revealed such evidence, we do
not attempt to identify the precise nature of each sighting reported to
us. We believe that rational explanations, such as aircraft lights or
natural phenomena could be found for them if resources were diverted for
this purpose, but it is not the function of the MOD to provide this kind
of aerial identification service. It would be an inappropriate use of
defence resources if we were to do so.

With regards to UFO-related documents covering the years 1978-2000, we
think you may be referring to the records that the Ministry of Defence has
just recently released to The National Archives. They are available for
public viewing on The National Archives website at:
[1]http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Therefore, in accordance with s.21
(Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means), of
the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we are not able to comply with your
request.

The Ministry of Defence will be transferring a further 150 files to The
National Archives over the next three years in chronological order, with
the oldest files being released first.

Finally, the Ministry of Defence Freedom of Information website has a
database which contains information on UFO sighting reports from the year
1997 up to 2007. This can be accessed via the internet at:
[2]http://mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomofI...,
by searching under `UFO' Reports.

I hope this is helpful. If you are unhappy with this response or you wish
to complain about any aspect of the handling of this request, then you
should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not
possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an
independent internal review by contacting the Director of Information
Exploitation, 6^th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
[3][email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review
must be made within 40 days of the date on which the attempt to reach
informal resolution has come to an end.

If you remain unhappy following an internal review, you may wish to take
your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of
Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the
Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the internal
review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers
of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's
website, [4]http://www.informationcommissoner.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Mrs J Monk

Ministry of Defence

Directorate of Air Staff - Freedom of Information 1

5^th Floor, Zone H

Main Building

Whitehall

London

SW1A 2HB

E-mail - [5][email address].

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
2. http://mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomofI...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.informationcommissoner.gov.uk/
5. mailto:[email address]
6. http://tinyurl.com/6prff8