Information Rights Unit
WH 2.177
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
www.gov.uk/fcdo
Niki Konstantinidis
request-693265-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 October 2020
Dear Niki Konstantinidis
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST REF: FOI2020/19541
Thank you for your email of 23rd September asking for information under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) 2000. You asked:
Please provide me with ministerial briefing papers containing any of the following
terms “Julian Assange" or "Assange" or "Julian Paul Assange" "Prisoner no:
A9379AY" or any other term identifying Mr Assange, from the year 2010 to the
present date.
Please provide me with ministerial briefing papers of Mr Dominic Raab containing
any of the following terms “Julian Assange" or "Assange" or "Julian Paul
Assange" "Prisoner no: A9379AY" or any other term identifying Mr Assange, from
the year 2019 and thereafter.
I can confirm that the FCDO does hold information relevant to your request.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public authorities to
refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the
appropriate limit. The limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For central government the
appropriate limit is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one or more
persons spending 3 ½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the
information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it. Your request as presently
formulated is widely-framed and I estimate that it will take more than 3 ½ working days
to locate, retrieve and extract this information. In these circumstances, we are not
obliged under the Act to comply with your request. You may therefore wish to refine your
request to narrow its scope to bring it within the appropriate limit.
For example, we would suggest you refine your request to a much short period i.e. a 12-
month period.
Please note that any new request will be given a separate reference number and we will
then consider whether we can provide the information requested within the appropriate
cost limit. This would of course be subject to the consideration of whether any of the
other exemptions under the FOI Act apply.
If you would like to request a review of our decision, or if you wish to make a complaint,
please write to the Information Rights Unit at Room WH2.177, King Charles Street,
London SW1A 2AH, or by e-mail to
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
Please note that you have 40 working days from the date of this letter in which to submit
a request for an internal review.
You can apply directly to the Information Commissioner. However, the Information
Commissioner will not normally make a decision unless you have first exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the FCDO. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF, or online at
https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
Yours sincerely,
Information Rights Unit
For information about how the FCDO handles personal information please
see our Personal Information Charter