Naval Service
FOI Co-ordination Cell
Navy Command Headquarters
Navy Command
MP 1-4
Leach Building
Whale Island
PORTSMOUTH PO2 8BY
Telephone: 02392 625081
Military: 93832 5081
Our Ref: 14-11-2008-074757-002
DII: FLEET-DCS-INFO-FOI1
E-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx
Pat
5
December
2008
via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Pat,
Release of Information
Further to our letter of 14 November 2008, I am writing to inform you that I am now
in a position to give you a substantive response to your enquiry for information on
HMS Bristol.
The amount the MOD uses to fund the running costs of HMS Bristol is not held
centrally and would require a specific costing exercise. Under the Freedom of
Information Act we are not required to create the information to answer requests.
However we are able to provide you with the approximate cost of running HMS
Bristol, which for the year 2007-2008 was £1,469, 260.
In addition you enquired about the percentage use of the ship for the current year.
This can be broken down as follows:
% time bunks utilised
Number of beds used
55.2 <100
22.4 100-200
15.7 200-300
6.2 300-400
0.6 >400
Note:
326 nights accommodation was utilised
There were a total of 44,500 bed nights used in 07/08 which equates to approximately 33%
usage. However, if for example 6 underage females are occupying a 40 bed cabin than no-one
other than underage girls can use this accommodation leaving 36 bunks empty.
In addition there were 203 differing courses on HMS Bristol in 2007/08 for 3904 students. This
equates to 100% usage of the vessel for the 50 weeks of the year that Bristol is available.
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 Info-
xx@xxx.xx ). 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.
Yours sincerely
Heather Godfrey
The Constitution Unit, a research body at University College London, is carrying out
an independent evaluative study of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in co-
operation with a number of public authorities, including the Ministry of Defence. An
important part of the evaluation process is gathering the experiences and opinions of
FOI requesters like you. Any information you provide will only be seen by the
Constitution Unit and will be handled in accordance with its privacy policy explained
in the survey. The Ministry of Defence will only see the published results: no
individual responses will be visible to us and your participation will have no effect on
your future dealings with the Ministry.
If you would like to take part in this study, please visit the following link to be taken
directly to the survey: http://tinyurl.com/6prff8. Or, if you prefer, contact Ben
Worthy at x.xxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx or on 020 7679 4974 to ask more about the study.