Relations between Portugal and UK, 1974

The request was refused by Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Please can you provide copies of communications between London and the British Embassy in Lisbon for the period of 18th April 1974 to the 9th May 1974. Please also provide copies of all other documents withheld from release to the National Archives from the following files:

* Relations between Portugal and UK
National Archives catalogue number: FCO 9/2069
FCO catalogue number: WSP 3/548/2 PART A

* Relations between Portugal and UK
National Archives catalogue number: FCO 9/2070
FCO catalogue number: WSP 3/548/2 PART B

* Relations between Portugal and UK
National Archives catalogue number: FCO 9/2071
FCO catalogue number: WSP 3/548/2 PART C

Yours faithfully,

Matt Kane

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear Mr Kane

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been assigned a unique reference number (above) and has been passed to the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you should your request need clarification.

We received your request on 23 July 2010 and will aim to respond within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Team
Information Management Group

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Kane

Please find attached the reply for your FOI request reference 0641-10.

Kind Regards

Clare

Mrs Clare Chrispin
IMG
HP 71
Room 020
Tel: 8007 5418 (01908 515418)
Email: [1][email address]

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Dear Mrs Chrispin,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Foreign and Commonwealth Office's handling of my FOI request 'Relations between Portugal and UK, 1974'.

Please provide confirmation that of the files FCO 9/2069 and FCO 9/2071, no documents have been removed, redacted or withheld.

Regarding file FCO 9/2070: as the file in question is over 30 years old and in the National Archives (see TNA catalogue here: http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue... ) it considered to be historical record. As such, section 23 no longer provides an absolute exemption. See ICO guidance here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/l...

I would therefore request that you conduct a public interest test. Could you then provide me with the details of the factors accounted for when applying the public interest, and the weight assigned to each.

If section 23 is still to be engaged, I would request evidence that the content refers to the security services in the form of a ministerial certificate.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Kane

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear Mr Kane,

Thank you for your e-mail to Clare Chrispin of 22 August.

I have passed on your request for an Internal Review of the above FOI
request to our team in London.

I can confirm separately that files FCO 9/2069 and FCO 9/2071 were
released in full to The National Archives.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Pring

FOI Team

Information Management Group

FCO

Tel: 01908 515959

[1][email address]

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear Mr Kane

Thank you for your e-mail of 22 August (which has only just reached me), to Clare Chrispin of the Records Management Team in our Information Management Group, in which you requested an Internal Review of your FOI Request Ref 0641-10. It has been passed to the Records Management Team for actioning. They will be in touch with you with an outcome.

Yours sincerely

Jackie Till
Information Rights
Information Management Group | Information & Technology Directorate | Foreign & Commonwealth Office
email: [FCO request email]
... visit our blogs at http://blogs.fco.gov.uk

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Kane,

Please find attached my response to your request for an internal review of
the FCO's decision regarding Freedom of Information Request 0641-10

Regards

Martin Tucker

Martin Tucker| Information Management Group - Head of Corporate Records|
Foreign and Commonwealth Office | Information and Technology
Directorate | Building 71 FCO Hanslope Park * email:
[1][email address] (01908) 515981

[2]Need to know what to register and how to register it? Find out -
iRecords training

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4. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/

Dear Mr Tucker,

Thank you for your response. After taking advice I believe I have grounds to refer this decision to the ICO. ICO guidance clearly states that for documents over 30 years old the section 23 exemption is no longer absolute, and a public interest test must be performed. If you are unable to reconsider and perform such a test, then I will be filing a complaint on those grounds. I will also be requesting that a ministerial certificate is provided as evidence that section 23 applies to this information.

Regards,

Matt Kane

Matt Kane left an annotation ()

ICO appeal sent 3rd November 2010.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Tucker,
Thank you for your reply. I was under the impression that because it had been assigned a National Archives catalogue record (see here: http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue... ) the file had in fact been transferred there.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Kane

Matt Kane left an annotation ()

The ICO have partially upheld my complaint. See the decision notice here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/~/media/documents/...