Ministry of Defence
Main Building
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2HB
United Kingdom
Telephone:
020 7218 9000
E-mail:
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Reference:
FOI2018/14074
Mr Tim Bullimore
By email to:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
5 December 2018
Dear Mr Bullimore,
Your email of 7 November 2018 has been considered to be a request for information in accordance
with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You requested the following information:
Please send me a copy of the correspondence between the Solicitors Regulation Authority
(“the SRA”) (of the one part) and the MOD or the Ministry of Justice or the Iraq Historic
Al egations Team (of the other part) which the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (“the SDT”)
directed/ordered the SRA to disclose to the respondents in case no. 11502/2016 (SRA v Day
and Others).
This letter is to inform you that the MOD holds information related to your request, but that we
believe the information falls within the scope of the following qualified exemptions: Section 31 (Law
Enforcement) and Section 35 (Formulation or Development of Government Policy)
. As such it is
necessary for us to decide whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in
maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
The Freedom of Information Act requires us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no
later than 20 working days after receiving your request. However, when a qualified exemption
applies to the information and the public interest test has to be conducted, the Act allows the time
for response to be longer than 20 working days. A full response must be provided within such time
as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case and, in relation to your request, we estimate that
it will take an additional 20 working days to take a final decision on where the balance of public
interest lies. We therefore plan to let you have a response by 9 January 2019. If it appears that it
will take longer than this to reach a conclusion we will let you know.
If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please contact this office in the first
instance.
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.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 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,
Directorate of Judicial Engagement Policy
Ministry of Defence