From: Paul Daly
Ministry of Defence
Main Building
Whitehall
London SW1A 2HB
United Kingdom
Telephone:
020 7218 4848
Assistant Head Information Rights team
E-mail:
xxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Refs:
FOI2020/11788
FOI2020/11787
FOI2020/11728
FOI2020/11565
FOI2020/11564
FOI2020/11563
FOI2020/10536
23 October 2020
Mr David Arbeely
request-700959-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx request-700955-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx request-700692-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
request-699486-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
request-699487-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
request-699491-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
request-692516-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Arbeely,
Thank you for your emails of 21 September, 1, 15, 20 and 22 October 2020 requesting
various information on the British Army
.
Your correspondence is being treated as requests for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) states that a valid request
“must be in writing; include the requester’s name and an address for correspondence; and,
describe the information requested”.
The ICO guidance states that “
the intention of the legislation is for the requester to provide
their real name”, and that “
the absence of a real name would make it technically invalid
under Section 8(1)(b)” of the FOIA. It should be noted, if an invalid request is processed by
a Public Authority, the requester would have no recourse to the ICO as their powers only
extend to valid requests under section 8 of the Act.
In view of the above and, as previously stated, the MOD has reason to believe that your
request may be invalid, and request you provide us with identification, in the form of a
copy of your driving licence or passport.
Please note: Whatdotheyknow.com is a public facing website, therefore, you should
provide your proof of identification via a private email address.
If you provide your identification as requested, we will be happy to take your requests
forward.
More information on how to submit a valid request can be found at the link below:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1164/recognising-a-request-made-
under-the-foia.pdf 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
CIO-
xxxxxx@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,
Paul Daly
Assistant Head Information Rights team
