Trawler Gaul

Dear Sir or Madam,

In a letter addressed to Mr Julian Brazier TF MP, dated 8 April
2008, Mr Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
for Transport, stated, "I am advised that there is no reason to
reopen the [Gaul] investigation."

I would be grateful if Mr Fitzpatrick could let us know whom he had
been advised by and in what manner that advice had been conveyed,
and kindly give us a complete account of that advice.

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,

Daniela Drysdale

(http://the-trawler-gaul.blogspot.com/)

Dear Sir or Madam,

Could you please respond to my request for information of 22
October 2008?

Many thanks and kind regards,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Sir or Madam,

In my FOI request of 22 October 2008 I asked you a very simple
question. You have, however, failed to provide me with the
information requested within the period prescribed by law.

I am therefore obliged to request an internal review.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Adam Paine,

In your acknowledgement of 8 December 2008 above, you erroneously
state that my FOI request of 22 October 2008 concerns the release
of information regarding the content of the correspondence between
Jim Fitzpatrick, MP and Julian Brazier, MP.

I would therefore like to make it clear for you that what I asked
for in fact were simply details on the source of the advice
received by Mr Fitzpatrick, the manner in which the advice had been
conveyed, and a complete account of that advice.

For further clarifications, please kindly read again my original
request.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Adam Paine,

Once again the DfT are circumventing my questions. I shall
therefore reiterate the content of my original FOI request:

"Dear Sir or Madam,

In a letter addressed to Mr Julian Brazier TF MP, dated 8 April
2008, Mr Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
for Transport, stated, "I am advised that there is no reason to
reopen the [Gaul] investigation."

I would be grateful if Mr Fitzpatrick could let us know whom he had
been advised by and in what manner that advice had been conveyed,
and kindly give us a complete account of that advice.

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,

Daniela Drysdale

(http://the-trawler-gaul.blogspot.com/)"

Should you not answer this request forthwith, I will have no choice
but to take the matter before the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Adam Paine,

To help you solve this matter more efficiently, I will clarify a
few things for you:

My request for an internal review was in fact dated 6 December
2008, not 17 December 2008.
You therefore only need to complete one review, and that should be
ready by 8 January 2009 (as you yourself estimate).

Your response dated 17 December 2008 does not answer or even relate
to my initial request for information above.
My message of yesterday was simply meant to draw your attention to
this fact.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Adam Paine,

Further to your reply of 19/12/08(including the revised letter from
Ms Theresa Crossley) and subsequent message of 19 December 2008, I
would like to explain to you that a request for an internal review
usually means that the person seeking information is dissatisfied
with the handling of his/her request by the public authority in
question.
With reference to my FOI request of 22 October, at the moment, and
for the reasons explained below, I still cannot say that I am
satisfied with your handling of my application.

With reference to your response (the complete version of Ms
Crossley’s letter) of 19 December 2008, forgive me if I am wrong,
but, to my mind, there is only one possible interpretation as to
the meaning of Mr Fitzpatrick’s statement, contained in his letter
to Mr Julian Brazier MP, dated 08 April 2008: i.e. "I am advised
that there is no reason to reopen the [Gaul] investigation", be it
within or without a particular context.

TO BE ADVISED followed by THAT… is to be informed
(by somebody other than yourself) of something. This
implies the existence of two parties: the advisor
and the advised.

I assume that Mr Fitzpatrick’s choice of words was consciously
employed so as to render this meaning. Please let me know if I am
wrong.

In your reply you state that: "No further analysis or advice was
given to Jim Fitzpatrick MP than appears in the letter" [i.e. in Mr
Fitzpatrick’s letter to Julian Brazier MP].
Regretfully, I have to admit that I found the above statement
rather puzzling, and, so far, I have been unable to understand its
meaning.

In my opinion, FURTHER means: additional, supplementary, or
subsequent. Hence, your assertion could mean that the Minister for
Transport received no advice AFTER his letter to Mr Julian Brazier
MP was written. Is that what you meant? Could you, please, clarify?

If, however, what you really meant was that no analysis or advice
had been given to Jim Fitzpatrick MP at any time BEFORE the letter
to Mr Julian Brazier MP was written, I would be grateful if you
could confirm it in a plain and unambiguous manner.

Many thanks and Season’s Greetings,

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Adam Paine,

Thank you for your letter of 17 December 2008.

Please see our reply at:

http://danieladrysdale.fileave.com/Lette...

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale

Dear Mr Paine,

Regarding my initial FOI request (see above), dated 22 October
2008.

On 6 Dec 2008, as a result of your unexplained delay in responding
to my enquiry, I requested an internal review.

On 19 December 2008, I received from you an unclear and incomplete
answer to my request, combined with a more general statement by the
Secretary of State for Transport.

In my message of 21 December 2008, I advised you that your answer
to my FOI request was too lacking and ambiguous, and asked you for
clarifications.

On 8 January 2009, you informed me about the results of your
internal review, which focused only on the timeliness of your
dealing with my initial FOI request.

Now, I am obliged to request another internal review, this time
into the substance of your response, unless you can clarify,
beforehand, the following:

- Who advised Mr Jim Fitzpatrick on the subject of the Gaul RFI and
the merits of our criticism thereof

- In what manner had that advice been conveyed

- What was the full content of that advice

Looking forward to your prompt and satisfactory response,

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Drysdale