Parliamentary, Ministerial and Central
Services
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
Email: xxxxxxx.xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Website
: https://www.gov.uk
Mr Alan Bell
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
12 February 2019
Dear Mr Bell,
Your Freedom Of Information Request: 060-19
Thank you for your request for information which we received on 15 January 2019. In your
request you asked for;
“I note that in the explanatory memorandum to The Overseas Association Decision (Revocation) (EU
Exit) Regulations 2019 there was a consultation in which a substantive reply with a series of
questions was received.
"One substantive reply was received with a number of questions which the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office addressed in writing and those explanations as to how the Regulations would
operate were accepted."
Please could you release the reply and the subsequent response by the FCO to the questions raised.
For reference:
https://www.gov.uk/eu-withdrawal-act-2018-statutory-instruments/the-overseas-
association-decision-revocation-eu-exit-regulations-2019” I can confirm that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office does hold information falling within
the terms of your request.
The FOI Act obliges 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 is engaged, the Act allows the time for response
to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as
is reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make all decisions
within 20 working days, including in cases where we need to consider where the public
interest lies in respect of a request for exempt information. In this case, however, we have
not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.
In your case we estimate that it will take an additional
20 days to take a decision on where
the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by
12 March 2019. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will
keep you informed.
The specific exemption which applies in relation to your request is: Section 27 (likely to
prejudice international relations).
If you would like to request a review of our decision, or if you wish to make a complaint,
please write to the Central FOI Unit at Room WH2.177, King Charles Street, London SW1A
2AH, or by e-mail t
o xxxxxxx.xxxx@xxx.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 FCO. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Parliamentary, Ministerial & Central Services
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
We keep and use information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to other UK
government departments and public authorities.