Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local
Government
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
T 030 3444 0000
www.gov.uk/mhclg
Alan Johnson
Date:
9 September 2019
Dear Alan Johnson
Freedom of Information Act 2000 -
4408324
Thank you for your request for information which we received on 27 August
2019 and processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
You requested: "
Please provide me with a copy of your business continuity policy
and business continuity strategy.".
I can confirm that we hold this information, but I am withholding it as explained
below.
This information is exempt from disclosure under section 31(1)(a) of the FOI Act as
disclosing it would be likely to harm the prevention or detection of crime.
Information falling within this exemption must still be provided however unless it is
not in the public interest to do so.
There will always be some general public interest in disclosure to promote
transparency and accountability of public authorities. In particular there will always
be a public interest argument to disclose a Business Continuity Policy (BCP) to show
that a public authority is prepared for all situations.
We consider that knowledge of our BCP, could provide external parties with
information about how to disrupt our service and subsequently use that disruption to
access either site or services. BCPs contain information regarding how MHCLG
would respond to crisis situations and emergencies, as well as key information about
the Departments systems and infrastructure. To make this information available in
the public domain would defeat the purpose of this kind of planning and put the
organisation at risk. It is clearly not in the public interest for this to occur.
I have decided, on balance, that it is not in the public interest to disclose this
information at this time.
TEMPLATE FRAMEWORK – NOT TO BE USED FOR SUBMISSION
OF DRAFT ANSWERS
Complaints procedure
If you are unhappy with this response, we will review it and report back to you. (This
is called an internal review.) If you want us to do this, let us know by return email
within two months of receiving this response. You can also ask by letter addressed
to:
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Knowledge and Information Access Team
4th Floor SE, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London, SW1P 4DF
If you are unhappy with the outcome of this internal review, you can ask the
independent Information Commissioner to investigate. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at email addre
ss xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx or use their
onli
ne form at ico.org.uk/concerns or call them on 0303 123 1113.
Yours faithfully,
MHCLG FOI Team