UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records

Dear Sir or Madam,

The following request was originally directed to the Foreign Office
as it related to the UK's relationship with other EU countries. The
Foreign Office FOI team has responded stating that the Foreign
Office does not hold the information and suggested that the
questions should be directed to the Home Office.

In the European Council Decision on the exchange of information
extracted from criminal records - Manual of Procedure (5459/09) -
pages 100-103 relate to the UK Central Authority for the Exchange
of Criminal Records (UKCA-ECR). I am making a request under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Please would you provide the
following information:

(a) what was the rationale for the Home Office agreeing to the
nomination of ACPO Criminal Records Office (ACRO) to perform the
role of the UKCA-ECR. (ACPO is a private limited company and not an
official government/public body)

(b) Were Ministers aware of and briefed on the legal status of ACPO
before agreeing to its nomination as the UKCA-ECR;

(c) Given that the Police National Computer is operated by NPIA (a
public agency), why was it resolved to use ACRO rather than NPIA to
be the UKCA-ECR;

(d) What are the estimated annual costs of the UKCA-ECR, how are
these costs covered and which Ministry/Department is responsible
for paying them;

(e) Is the provision of the UKCA-ECR service by ACRO undertaken
under a contract and if so which Ministry/Department placed the
contract.

Yours faithfully,

John Brown

Dear Sir or Madam,

This request
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uk...)
is currently overdue a response from Home Office. By law, the
response had to be prompt but no later than 3 April 2009. Under the
Freedom of Information Act the Home Office should have replied by
now, and is therefore breaking the law. Please would you respond to
this request.

Yours sincerely,

John Brown

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's
handling of my FOI request 'UK Central Authority for the Exchange
of Criminal Records'. I have had no acknowledgement of my email of
13 April and no response to my request of 5 March.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uk...

Please would you expedite a response to the original request or
explain why you are unable to respond.

Yours sincerely,

John Brown

Dear Hazzelby Gareth (IMS),

Please see one of your colleagues response to: Reference:T4057/9 -

"Thank you for your e-mail enquiry of 5 March. A reply is attached.
I also note that there is apparently a further request to the Home
Office
(http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uk...)
that is outstanding. I'm afraid that I cannot find it on our
correspondence tracking system. You may wish to check that it was
actually sent."

I wish to point out that it is not my responsibility to check your
correspondence tracking system - this is a failure of your system
and not the WDTK system. I am
very dissatisfied with the Home Office response and its failure to
acknowledge the follow up sent on 13th April. Please would you
expedite the handling of the response.

Yours sincerely,

John Brown