Dear Madam or Sir,

This request is related to the company Strategic Communication
Laboratories Limited (hereafter SCL; http://www.scl.cc/ website),
and its component part the Behavioural Dynamics Institute (BDi;
http://www.bdinstitute.org/ website). Would you please provide the
numbers of contracts made by the Ministry of Defence or any part of
Her Majesty’s Armed Forces with SCL or BDi, and the date of each.
Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Dr Kaihsu Tai

Dear Dr Tai,

Your email enquiry dated 3 September 2008, reproduced below this e-mail message, has been considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We have no central record of any contracts being made between MOD (including the Armed Forces) and Strategic Communication Laboratories Limited or the Behavioural Dynamics Institute.

Around 95% of all MOD payments are made and recorded centrally. This excludes payments which may have been made by the MOD on behalf of other Government departments, or which have been made by the MOD's Trading Funds (which lie outside our accounting boundary), or were made under low-value local purchase arrangements. In addition, the central records do not identify payments made to companies or traders who form part of joint ventures or alliances operating under a different name or title. Neither do they itemise the final recipients of certain payments made in relation to international collaborative projects. Determining whether the companies you mention received such payments, even if this were possible, would exceed the 'appropriate limit' specified in Freedom of Information regulations. The appropriate limit for central government is £600, which represents the estimated cost of one person expending 3 and a half working days effort.

I hope you find this information useful, but if you are unhappy with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of your 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, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email address] <mailto:[email address]> ). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working 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 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 the 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, http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk <http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/> .

Yours sincerely

Finance Director Secretariat Pol1

MOD Main Building

Whitehall

London

SW1A 2HB

020 7218 9000

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Dear Finance Director,

Thank you for your response to my request. I am pleased to confirm
that I have received all the information I need.

Sincerely,

Kaihsu Tai