Dear Sir or Madam,

Please provide a list of all gifts, hospitality or donations
supplied to the Specialist Crime Directorate by Scientology
organisations, over the past 5 years.

By 'Scientology organisations', I mean organisations which promote,
recruit members for, or raise money for, Church of Scientology
Religious Education College Incorporated (a foreign corporation
which
has been denied charitable status in the UK).

To the best of my knowledge a list of such organisations would
include:

Jive Aces / Church of Scientology Inc / Greenfields School /
Greenfields Educational Trust / Hubbard Foundation / ABLE / Applied
Scholastics International / Narconon / Criminon / The Way to
Happiness Foundation International / Church of Scientology
Religious Education College Inc / Office of Special Affairs (OSA) /
Sea Org / Youth for Human Rights International / Citizens
Commission on Human Rights (United Kingdom) Ltd

Thank you for your time and attention on this matter.

Yours faithfully,

William Thackeray.

Dear Mr Thackeray

Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 2009050005174
I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) on 21/05/2009. I note you seek
access to the following information:

* "Please provide a list of all gifts, hospitality or donations supplied
to the Specialist Crime Directorate by Scientology organisations,
over the past 5 years. "
* "By 'Scientology organisations', I mean organisations which promote,
recruit members for, or raise money for, Church of Scientology
Religious Education College Incorporated (a foreign corporation which
has been denied charitable status in the UK)."
* " To the best of my knowledge a list of such organisations would
include: Jive Aces / Church of Scientology Inc / Greenfields School
/Greenfields Educational Trust / Hubbard Foundation / ABLE / Applied
Scholastics International / Narconon / Criminon / The Way to
Happiness Foundation International / Church of Scientology Religious
Education College Inc / Office of Special Affairs (OSA) / Sea Org
/ Youth for Human Rights International / Citizens Commission on Human
Rights (United Kingdom) Ltd . "

Your request will now be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act). You will receive a response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act,
subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference
to a third party. In some circumstances the MPS may be unable to
achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and
given a revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to
another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest
possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet, which details your
right of complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me by email, quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Katie London
Support Officer
COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Are you unhappy with how your request has been handled or do you think
the decision is incorrect?

You have the right to require the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to
review their decision.

Prior to lodging a formal complaint you are welcome and encouraged to
discuss the decision with the case officer that dealt with your
request.

Ask to have the decision looked at again ***

The quickest and easiest way to have the decision looked at again is
to telephone the case officer that is nominated at the end of your
decision letter.

That person will be able to discuss the decision, explain any issues
and assist with any problems.

Complaint

If you are dissatisfied with the handling procedures or the decision
of the MPS made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act)
regarding access to information you can lodge a complaint with the MPS
to have the decision reviewed.

Complaints should be made in writing and addressed to:

FOI Complaint
Public Access Office
PO Box 57192
London
SW6 1SF

In all possible circumstances the MPS will aim to respond to your
complaint within 40 working days.
The Information Commissioner

After lodging a complaint with the MPS if you are still dissatisfied
with the decision you may make application to the Information
Commissioner for a decision on whether the request for information has
been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

For information on how to make application to the Information
Commissioner please visit their website at
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. Alternatively, phone or write to:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Thackeray

Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 2009050005174

I write in connection with your request for information dated 21/05/2009
which was received by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) on 21/05/2009.
I note you seek access to the following information:

* Please provide a list of all gifts, hospitality or donations
supplied to the Specialist Crime Directorate by Scientology
organisations, over the past 5 years. By 'Scientology
organisations', I mean organisations which promote, recruit
members for, or raise money for, Church of Scientology Religious
Education College Incorporated (a foreign corporation which has
been denied charitable status in the UK). To the best of my
knowledge a list of such organisations would include: Jive
Aces / Church of Scientology Inc / Greenfields School /
Greenfields Educational Trust / Hubbard Foundation / ABLE / Applied
Scholastics International / Narconon / Criminon / The Way to
Happiness Foundation International / Church of Scientology
Religious Education College Inc / Office of Special Affairs (OSA) /
Sea Org / Youth for Human Rights International / Citizens
Commission on Human Rights (United Kingdom) Ltd .

First of all, I must apologise for exceeding the FOIA 20 day deadline by
one day. This was due to an administrative error and I am now taking steps
to determine how this occurred.

Background and processing of request:
On 21st May you made 39 requests to the MPS. This consisted of one request
to each of the MPS boroughs (totalling 32), and a further seven requests
to the MPS groups or units listed below:
MPS Management Board
Specialist Crime Directorate
Central Operations
Specialist Operations
Administration and Support
SO18 (specified as "Heathrow Police" in your request)
Royal Parks Police

Each request asked for the same information, specifically, details of any
hospitality received from Scientology organisations.

In responding to these requests, I have included this explanatory section
outlining the steps taken to deal with your requests, and the
considerations involved. This will explain why some of the requests
receive different responses, and to avoid any confusion, I have included
this explanation in the posted response to each of your requests. The
response for each specific request can be found in the Decision section
below.

I understand that you have made your requests based on advice received
from the MPS as part of the Internal Review of a previous request, which
asked for this information from the MPS as a whole. You were advised that
the information was not held centrally, rather that Hospitality Registers
were held independently in each of the boroughs and units across the MPS,
and that locating/retrieving the requested information would exceed the
cost threshold. You were also correctly advised that the way to proceed
would be to make individual requests to each of the boroughs and units,
and that details of the structure of the MPS could be found on the MPS
website. This has resulted in your requests of the 21st May 2009.

In responding to these requests, I have taken into account the following
considerations.

Firstly, although your requests are directed to individual units within
the MPS, they still all made to the same public authority - the MPS, and
are all requesting the same information - details of hospitality received
from Scientology organisations. All requests were received on the same
day.

Although the Act makes provision for dealing with requests repeated within
a 60 day period [Section 14(2)], I fully appreciate that it is not your
intention to repeatedly ask for the same information, rather you are
attempting to access the same information in numerous independent
locations within the MPS. I also appreciate that you were advised of this
approach by the MPS Internal Reviewer during your previous complaint. I
would therefore consider the use of section 14(2) to be inappropriate in
this instance, and I have not applied this exemption.

However, the fact remains that your 39 requests do ask the MPS for the
same information, and The Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 section (5) states that when
two or more requests for the same or similar information are made to a
public authority by one person (or by different persons who appear to be
acting in concert), the public authority may "aggregate" the requests and
take into account the total cost of complying with them all. It must also
be taken into account that directorates such as 'Specialist Operations'
and 'Serious Crime Directorate', are themselves formed of numerous smaller
units who keep their own independent Hospitality Registers, and in these
cases, multiple searches have been required to locate each relevant
register.

I have therefore decided to aggregate the 39 requests you have made, and I
regret to inform you that the cost of complying with the aggregated
requests would exceed the appropriate limit **450, or 18 hours at **25 per
hour, set out in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. [Please see the Appendix
below]

However, I can see that this is something of a 'Catch 22' situation - your
previous request for this information to the MPS as a whole was refused as
it would exceed the cost threshold, yet your subsequent 39 requests
(because they have been made within a 60 day period and ask the individual
units of the MPS for the same information) are suitable for aggregation,
in which case they will also exceed the cost threshold. I take on board
the fact that you were previously advised to make individual requests, and
that you may not have been aware that to make such a large number of
requests for the same information within the same 60 day time period would
lead to aggregation of those requests.

Therefore, under the section 16 duty to assist, I have proceeded to seek
the information you have requested, up to the point where the **450/18
hour threshold has been reached. To do this, I approached the requests in
chronological order, allowing your requests to the Management Board and
major Directorates to be dealt with first. It became apparent that the
cost threshold would be reached simply dealing with these initial
requests, and in some cases this prevented every unit within a Directorate
from being contacted.

Although the cost threshold had been reached, I wished to provide you with
some indication of the information held by the MPS boroughs, so I
undertook to contact an additional, but limited, number of the boroughs in
order to provide you with a cross section of responses from these business
areas. This was undertaken over and above the cost threshold as part of
the duty to assist, and I hope you find this useful.

In each case, the searches have identified that no relevant information is
held - no entries in the Registers relate to hospitality received from
Scientology organisations. Full details of searches included in the cost
breakdown, and the results of my enquiries in each case, are provided in
the attached sheet.

COST BREAKDOWN:
The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 section (4) sets out that the public authority can
take account of the following factors in determining the costs incurred in
relation to the request:

(a) determining whether it holds the information,
(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the
information,
(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the
information, and
(d) extracting the information from a document containing it.

In this case, the relevant factors are the cost involved in determining
whether the information is held, and locating the documents which may
contain the information. This has included the time taken to contact the
relevant person in each of the named boroughs and units, provide them with
details of the request, and for them to locate the Register and undertake
a search to identify whether any information is recorded that relates to
Scientology organisations.

No cost has been included for retrieving or extracting the requested
information. As noted above, this is because in each case, the searches
have identified that no relevant information is held - no entries in the
Registers relate to hospitality received from Scientology organisations.

The attached sheet shows a breakdown of how the cost threshold has been
reached in relation to your 39 requests.

DECISION:

As specified in the attached cost breakdown, I have requested a search of
the Hospitality Register or Registers held by the Specialist Crime
Directorate, and in response to your request I can confirm that no
information is held by the units listed in the breakdown.

Searches of additional units who may also hold Registers was not
undertaken, as the cost threshold for your aggregated requests had been
reached. For the reasons stated above, it will not be possible to respond
further to this request within the cost threshold as this would exceed the
appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been specified in The Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004, and for agencies outside central Government, this is set
at **450.00. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18
hours [at a rate of **25 per hour] in determining whether the MPS holds
the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter
therefore acts as a Refusal Notice for the remaining Serious Crime
Directorate Units.

Section 17(5) of the Act provides:
(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information,
is relying on a claim that section 12 or 14 applies must, within the time
for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that
fact.

Section 12 of the Act provides:
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

To assist, the attached Cost Breakdown sheet includes the results of those
searches across the MPS undertaken within the **450/18 hour threshold. As
explained above, I hope this will prove useful.

Appendix:
As this request forms one of 39 requests for the same information, made to
the MPS within a period of 60 days, the following section of The Freedom
of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 is also relevant here:

The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and
Fees) Regulations 2004 section 5:
Estimating the cost of complying with a request - aggregation of related
requests

5 (1) In circumstances in which this regulation applies, where two or more
requests for information to which section 1(1) of the 2000 Act would,
apart from the appropriate limit, to any extent apply, are made to a
public authority -
(a) by one person, or

(b) by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting
in concert or in pursuance of a campaign,
the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to
be the total costs which may be taken into account by the authority, under
regulation 4, of complying with all of them.

(2) This regulation applies in circumstances in which-
(a) the two or more requests referred to in paragraph (1) relate, to any
extent, to the same or similar information, and

(b) those requests are received by the public authority within any period
of sixty consecutive working days.

COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet which details your right of
complaint.

Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write
or contact Lou Lander on telephone number 0207 0915565 quoting the
reference number above.

Yours sincerely

Louise Lander
Higher Information Manager
COMPLAINT RIGHTS

Are you unhappy with how your request has been handled or do you think the
decision is incorrect?

You have the right to require the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to
review their decision.

Prior to lodging a formal complaint you are welcome and encouraged to
discuss the decision with the case officer that dealt with your request.

Ask to have the decision looked at again ***

The quickest and easiest way to have the decision looked at again is to
telephone the case officer that is nominated at the end of your decision
letter.

That person will be able to discuss the decision, explain any issues and
assist with any problems.

Complaint

If you are dissatisfied with the handling procedures or the decision of
the MPS made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) regarding
access to information you can lodge a complaint with the MPS to have the
decision reviewed.

Complaints should be made in writing and addressed to:

FOI Complaints
Public Access Office
PO Box 57192
London
SW6 1TR

In all possible circumstances the MPS will aim to respond to your
complaint within 40 working days.
The Information Commissioner

After lodging a complaint with the MPS if you are still dissatisfied with
the decision you may make application to the Information Commissioner for
a decision on whether the request for information has been dealt with in
accordance with the requirements of the Act.

For information on how to make application to the Information Commissioner
please visit their website at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk.
Alternatively, phone or write to:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 01625 545 700

show quoted sections