Army Secretariat
Army Headquarters
IDL 24 Blenheim Building
Marlborough Lines
Andover
Hampshire, SP11 8HJ
United Kingdom
Ref: Army/Sec/St/FOI2021/04881
E-mail:
xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Website:
www.army.mod.uk
Mr M Oxford
request-753385-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
04 June 2021
Dear Mr Oxford,
Thank you for your email of 07 May 2021 in which you made the following request:
I am enquiring about a summary of sub-units (Company Level) of 103 Battalion,
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and the Companies combat role.
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act).
A search for the information has now been completed within the Ministry of Defence, and I
can confirm that information in scope of your request is held. This information is however
exempt under Section 26(1)(b) (Defence) of the Act and is therefore being withheld.
Section 26 exempts information that, if disclosed, would, or would be likely to, prejudice
the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces. This is a qualified exemption
which requires a public interest test to establish the balance on releasing or withholding
information. In this case, the arguments for release include the public interest in how
Defence is run and the size of the British Army. Arguments to withhold information include
that internal organisational detail including sub-units is sensitive information, useful to
potential adversaries, as it exposes internal Army structures and capabilities. It has
therefore been decided that, on balance, the information should be withheld as release
would be likely to be prejudicial to the capability, effectiveness and security of the unit in
question, and those of a similar nature.
If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please contact this office in the
first instance. Following this, if you wish to complain about the handling of your request, or
the content of this response, you can request an independent internal review by contacting
the Information Rights Compliance team, Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall,
SW1A 2HB (e-mail
xxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx). Please note that any request for an internal
review should be made within 40 working days of the date of this response.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may raise your complaint
directly to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Act.
Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until
the MOD internal review process has been completed. The Information Commissioner can
be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
1
Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further details of the role and powers of the Information
Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website a
t https://ico.org.uk/. Yours sincerely,
Army Secretariat
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