Near East Group
Middle East & North Africa
Directorate
King Charles Street
SW1A 2AH
www.fco.gov.uk
Mr Guy Freeman
whatdotheyknow.com
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
04 October 2010
Dear Mr Freeman,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST 0606-10
I am writing regarding your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act in which you asked for:
“Frances Guy, the British Ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon,
published a post to her blog at
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/guy/entry/the_passing_of_decent_men/
concerning the death of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a post
that was later deleted.
Please provide electronic copies of all internal correspondence you
hold related to this post, including (but not restricted to)
reactions from colleagues and managers of Ms. Guy, whether directed
to her or not; how the decision to delete the post was come to; and
any correspondence relating to the decision of Ms. Guy to write a
new blog post about the incident, published at
http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/guy/entry/the_problems_of_diplomatic_blogging.”
The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly and in any case no later
than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a qualified
exemption applies to the information and the public interest test is engaged, the Act
allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response
must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case.
We do, of course, aim to make all decisions within 20 working days, including in
cases where we need to consider where the public interest lies in respect of a
request for exempt information. In this case, however, we have not yet reached a
decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.
In your case we estimate it will take up to an additional
15 working days to take a
decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let
you have a response by 25 October. If it appears that it will take longer than this to
reach a conclusion, we will of course keep you informed.
The exemptions we are currently considering in relation to your request are Section
27 (International Relations) and Section 36 (Prejudice to effective conduct of Public
Affairs).
I understand you will shortly receive a substantive response to your request for an
internal review into the time taken to process this request. As you are aware if you
are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish
to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to me at
the above address. Please note any request for an internal review must be submitted
within 40 working days from the date our response was issued.
If you are not content with the outcome your complaint, you may apply directly to the
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot
make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter. I note that you have
placed several FOI requests with the FCO. Without wishing to prejudice any current
or future appeals - you may wish to contact me or one of my colleagues in
Information Rights Team to discuss aspects of freedom of information requests
generally. We would be willing to discuss over the telephone or meet in person to
discuss these general aspects of Freedom of Information as they apply to the FCO.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Neville Jones
Near East Group
Foreign and Commonwealth Office