Attorney General's consent to prosecute in case Number T20107374

The request was successful.

Christopher Payne

Dear Crown Prosecution Service,
Can you confirm whether the Attorney General gave consent for the prosecution of the following:

CASE OF R. v Jamie Green, Jonathan Beere, Daniel Payne, Scott Birtwistle
and Zoran Dresic (“The Freshwater Five”) – OPERATION DISORIENT –
Middle Market Drug Partnership
URN: 02/S7/136/10
Kingston Crown Court, Date last heard: June 2, 2011.
Case Number T20107374

I requested the information from the AGO and they advised me to contact the CPS.
Below is the response from the AGO.

"We have searched our electronic records for the information that you have provided and we cannot confirm that the Attorney General gave his consent to the prosecution. There are a number of reasons why this might be so.
Therefore, we suggest that you consult the Crown Prosecution Service. It was the prosecuting authority and they should be able to confirm whether the Attorney General’s consent was required for the prosecution and whether it was given."

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Christopher Stuart Payne

Freedom of Information Unit, Crown Prosecution Service

Dear Mr Payne,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request - Ref:- 7190

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which we received on 8 October 2017.

The FOI Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. This means that any information disclosed under the FOI Act by definition becomes available to the wider public.

There is a 20 working day limit in which we are required to respond to requests.

The deadline for your request is 6 November 2017.

Yours sincerely

Information Management Unit
020 3357 0899
[CPS request email]

Freedom of Information Unit, Crown Prosecution Service

Dear Mr Payne

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request which we received on 8 October 2017.

The CPS are required to conduct a public interest test in relation to your request. This public interest test is required because some of the information you have requested may engage section 30 (Investigation and proceedings conducted by public authorities) of the FOI Act.

Under section 10(3) of the FOI Act we are entitled to extend the time limit for FOI requests where the public interest has to be considered by a reasonable period; the ICO determine a reasonable period for complex requests such as yours to be an extra 20 working days. We hope to issue a substantive response to your FOI request as soon as possible, and in any event within 20 working days of this email. This will be by latest 29 November 2017.

If the public interest is determined to be in favour of withholding information under this exemption then we will provide a full explanation of why the exemption is engaged and the public interest factors taken into consideration.

I realise that the further period of time required may be disappointing news, if you have any queries please feel free to contact me using the details below.

Kind regards

Senior Information Management Advisor
Crown Prosecution Service
Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS
Tel: 0203 357 0399

Christopher Payne

Dear Crown Prosecution Service,
I cannot understand why there is a delay of up to 20 days for a straight forward request which basically requires a YES or NO answer.

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Payne

Freedom of Information Unit, Crown Prosecution Service

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Payne

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

 

Please see the attached response to your Freedom of Information request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Management Unit

020 3357 0899

[1][CPS request email]

 

 

 

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