Air Command Secretariat
Spitfire Block
Headquarters Air Command
Royal Air Force
High Wycombe
Buckinghamshire
HP14 4UE
Ref. 2017/12050
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 December 2017
Dear Mr Harwood,
Thank you for your email of 26 November 2017 requesting the following information:
I request that you provide information relating to all complaints filed against
your organisation from all volunteers regarding bullying against them.
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
I am writing to advise you that to confirm whether or not the information requested is
held would itself exceed the appropriate limit. This is because to locate, retrieve and
extract information in scope of your request has been calculated to take at least some
6 man days of effort.
Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for
information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit,
which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of
one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the department holds
the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it.
The MOD may be able to provide some information in scope of your request if you
reduce or refine your request to bring the cost of compliance under the limit. For
instance, complaints filed against HQ RAF Air Cadets from all volunteers regarding
bullying against them by HQ RAF Air Cadets staff in the period 1 April 2012 to 1 April
2017. However, you may wish to note that this information may still be subject to the
exemptions under the FOIA. Please contact me if you would like to refine your
request or require advice on doing so.
If you are not satisfied with this response or wish to complain about any aspect of the
handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal
resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an
independent internal review by contacting the Information Rights Compliance Team,
Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail CIO-FOI-
xx@xxx.xx). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made
within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution
has come to an end.
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
Freedom of Information 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, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found
on the Commissioner's website at https://ico.org.uk/.
Yours sincerely,
[Original signed]
Air Command Secretariat
