Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please could you tell me

a) the current number of full, and part-time personnel and how many reservists are working for 77 Brigade

b) how many of the reservists mentioned also work as journalists

c) how many of the reservists work for Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube or Microsoft?

d) the current budget of 77 Brigade

Very grateful for your assistance with my request.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Emma L Briant

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Ministry of Defence's handling of my FOI request '77 Bde'.

I requested to know:
a) the current number of full, and part-time personnel and how many reservists are working for 77 Brigade

b) how many of the reservists mentioned also work as journalists

c) how many of the reservists work for Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube or Microsoft?

d) the current budget of 77 Brigade

The only part of this that has been fulfilled is D. The other items were rejected on the grounds of "Section 26(1)(b) exempts information that if disclosed would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces" - a qualified exemption which is subject to the public interest test. I would like to contest this on the grounds both of public interest and because this is information for which there is a previous precedent for openness and acknowledgement which has not prejudiced the UK armed forces. For example:
Baroness Stedman-Scott in 2018 acknowledge that 77 Brigade was comprised of approximately 200 Regular and 270 Reserve Service Personnel https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id... - there seems to be no justification for refusing to give up to date information if it was deemed perfectly ok for Baroness Stedman-Scott to give this information out in 2018.
Furthermore, in relation to my other questions about the breakdown of types of reservist, it is not a secret that 77 Brigade includes journalists, media and social media experts, it is openly acknowledged, and the MOD has commented on the fact Gordan McMillan, a Twitter exec was a reservist for example, someone who openly acknowledged their role online. I am not asking you to identify individuals, only to give a breakdown of numbers please.

Very grateful for your assistance with my request.

Yours faithfully,

Dr Emma L Briant

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/7...

Yours faithfully,

Dr Emma L Briant