CDS Operational Directive 09/14
Dear Ministry of Defence,
Please provide a copy of
(1) A copy of 'CDS Operational Directive 09/14 to Personnel Embedded within Other Nations Forces, dated Apr 14' as cited in JSP 900 Edition 2.
(2) A dated list of any other versions of the above Directive.
(3) Copies of all documents in above dated list.
Yours faithfully,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ministry of Defence,
This request has not been responded to promptly as required by FOIA.
Please respond by Monday 6th January or I will be forced to file a complaint with the ICO.
Yours faithfully,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ministry of Defence,
This request is now long overdue a response and is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I will be forced to refer this case to the Information Commissioner if the MOD does not provide a response by end of business on Friday 10th January 2020.
Yours faithfully,
Ceri Gibbons
Ceri Gibbons left an annotation ()
Email correspondence between ICO and MOD
29 January 2020
Case Reference Number FS50902583
Dear Sir/Madam
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Complaint from: Ceri Gibbons
Your reference: CDS Operational Directive 09/14
The Information Commissioner has received a complaint from the above named individual who says that you have not sent a response to an information request they submitted to your organisation on 5 November 2019; see https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Action
The FOIA places a duty on any public authority in receipt of such a request to respond within 20 working days of receipt. As you have acknowledged receipt of the request but have not responded, please now provide the complainant with a response that complies with the FOIA within 10 working days of the date of this email.
Please copy the ‘Casework’ email address into your response.
The Commissioner has published the following guidance, which you may find helpful:
Time for compliance and the FOIA
Time for compliance and the EIR
Refusing a request
Our Regulatory Action Policy is published on our website. In the event of other, similar, complaints the Commissioner may consider taking enforcement action under section 52 of the FOIA.
Finally, you should be aware that the Information Commissioner often receives requests for copies of the correspondence we send and receive when dealing with casework. Not only are we obliged to deal with these in accordance with the access provisions of Data Protection legislation and the FOIA, it is in the public interest that we are open, transparent and accountable for the work that we do.
I have copied this correspondence to the complainant.
Yours sincerely
Case Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office
Dear Ceri Gibbons
Please see attached response to your Freedom of Information Act request
Regards
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
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 'CDS Operational Directive 09/14'.
1. Please reconsider the calculation of time required to comply with the request. I am not satisfied that the cost limit would be exceeded.
2. If the internal review upholds the original decision on cost grounds I am prepared to amend my request to the following.
Please provide a copy of CDS Operational Directive 09/14 and a dated list of all other versions of the document. I no longer include within the scope of this request copies of the other versions listed. I believe this will greatly reduce the time required by MOD to deal with the request .
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Yours faithfully,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Mr Gibbons,
We acknowledge receipt of your email and we can confirm that an internal review will be conducted of your request for information, our reference FOI2019/12673.
The Department's target for completing internal reviews is 20 working days from date of receipt and we therefore aim to complete the review and respond to you by 5 March 2020. While we are working hard to achieve this, in the interests of providing you with a realistic indication of when you should expect a response, we should advise that the majority are currently taking between 20 and 40 working days to complete.
The review will involve a full, independent reconsideration of the handling of the case as well as the final decision.
Regards,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Gibbons,
Please find attached a response to your recent request for internal
review.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
I regret that, as a result of the measures implemented by HM Government to
prevent the spread of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, and the effect on
resources and necessary changes to ways of working, we are not in a
position to provide you with a response to your request at the moment.
MOD staff in the Department who are responsible for dealing with your
request are working fulltime as part of the MoD’s COVID Response Team,
however we will continue to process your request as quickly as possible,
where priorities and resources allow, however It may take considerably
longer to complete.
We will aim to provide you with an update and thank you for your patience
during this time.
Kind Regards
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Dear CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER),
Please can you give me an update on the progress of this FOIA case
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Thank you for your email dated 22^nd May 2020.
MOD staff in the Department who are responsible for dealing with your
request are still working fulltime as part of the MoD’s COVID Response
Team, however we will continue to process your request as quickly as
possible and will endeavour to have a response completed by the end
June.
Thank you for your patience during this time.
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Dear CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER),
Please provide an update on this case.
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER),
Please provide your response by Friday 17th July 2020 or I will be forced to complain to the ICO.
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Thank you for your email.
The review process of your FOI request reference number FOI2019/12673 is
now underway.
However, due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and the effect on
resources and necessary changes to ways of working, MOD staff in the
Department who are responsible for dealing with your request are still
working as part of the MoD’s COVID Response Team.
We will continue to process your request and will endeavour to have a
response completed as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your patience during this time.
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Dear CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER),
Please provide and update on this request.
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER),
Please provide a full response by Friday 11 September 2020 or I will - once again - be forced to complain to the Information Commissioner.
Yours sincerely,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Thank you for your email.
We apologise for the delay in providing you with a response to your
request reference number FOI2019/12673.
This is due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the effect on resources
and the necessary changes to ways of working,
We are continuing to process your request and will endeavour to have a
response completed as quickly as possible within the next two weeks.
We thank you for your patience during this time.
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Ceri Gibbons left an annotation ()
A second complaint to the ICO regarding this case was made on 13 September 2020
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
This email is to provide you with an update to your request reference
number FOI2019/12673.
Unfortunately this remains a work in progress owing to an ongoing issue we
are looking to resolve as swiftly as possible.
We are working to resolve this as quickly as we can but this is likely to
take some time (potentially up to a further 4 weeks) to resolve.
We will provide a further update within the next 2 weeks, and will
endeavour to respond fully to your request within the 4 week window if
this proves possible.
We thank you for your continued patience.
Kind regards
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
From: CIO-FOI (MULTIUSER) <[email address]>
Sent: 11 September 2020 10:50
To: Ceri Gibbons <[FOI #617874 email]>
Subject: 20200911 - RE: 20200714 Re - Freedom of Information request - CDS
Operational Directive 09/14
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Thank you for your email.
We apologise for the delay in providing you with a response to your
request reference number FOI2019/12673.
This is due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the effect on resources
and the necessary changes to ways of working,
We are continuing to process your request and will endeavour to have a
response completed as quickly as possible within the next two weeks.
We thank you for your patience during this time.
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
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 'CDS Operational Directive 09/14'.
I am grateful for the eventual release of the highly redacted information even though the time spent to process this request flagrantly violated the FOIA statutory time limits.
Unfortunately it appears the redacted information is not as entirely redacted as the MOD had planned for the 2016 Directive. This is clear from the appearance of phone numbers and references to Director of Special Forces (DSF) that are marked for redaction but remain visible.
The legible planned redactions of information regarding the United States, cluster bombs, and training of foreign forces, do not merit redaction by any of the exemptions MOD has applied and can not seriously be judged harmful to national security or international relations.The public interest test process the MOD applied to the other redactions that remain illegible is seriously open to question as a result.
Please conduct an internal review of all MOD redactions and confirm what information it does or does not seek to redact from these documents and under which exemptions in light of the above argument.
Yours faithfully,
Ceri Gibbons
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Please see attached amended response to your FOI request.
I apologise for the error in redaction. As the information was clearly
released in error we request that you do not circulate that information
further.
Regards
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Dear Ceri Gibbons,
Thank you for advising us that MOD sent you a document in response to your
FOI request, our reference FOI2020/12673, which was not completely
redacted to remove all of the exempt information including third party
personal data.
You will wish to be aware that we have uploaded a further copy of the
information, now correctly redacted, on the WDTK website. We have also
contacted the support staff at WDTK who, have advised us that the request
is currently private to you as the requester, so only you will have seen
the unredacted version. In addition, WDTK have also hidden the initial
response from public view so that when the request is eventually made
public only the corrected version will be available.
Our purpose in writing, as part of our remedial action, including our
obligations under the Data Protection legislation, is to ask you destroy
any copies you may have taken. I would be grateful if you could confirm as
necessary.
I can advise that the MOD Information Rights Compliance Team have
commenced the internal review of FOI2020/12673 , which will consider the
properly redacted version that has now been sent to you.
We thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Team
Ministry of Defence
Dear Mr Gibbons,
The Department has received your email requesting an internal review of
the handling of your request under the FOI Act, reference FOI2019/12673.
I must advise you that we have been unable to progress your appeal due to
the measures implemented by the Department to prevent the spread of
COVID-19. The information in scope of your request, and the materials
supporting the application of exemptions cannot be accessed or viewed by
staff while they are working remotely. Until the current restrictions have
eased, and staff are able to return to the office to access the material
we will not be able to complete our independent internal review of the
handling of the request and advise on the level of redaction applied to
the documents in scope.
I apologise that we will not be able to meet the Department's target for
completing internal reviews, which is usually 20 working days, or 40
working days for more complex case.
While we cannot confirm when we will be able to restart our work on
reviewing your request, we can assure you that we are committed to
completing the review as soon as possible after we regain access to the
relevant information.
We will notify you when access is gained and are able to provide a
realistic estimate of when the review may be completed.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Gibbons,
Please find attached a response to your request for internal review.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Ceri Gibbons left an annotation ()
Dear Mr Gibbons
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Your information request to Ministry of Defence
Your request: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...
Thank you for your time earlier today in our telephone conversion and also your correspondence of 27 May 2021 in which you raised a complaint about the above public authority’s handling of your request for information.
Your complaint has been accepted as eligible for further consideration and will be allocated to a case officer as soon as possible.
We generally deal with complaints in the order we receive them, except where we have identified a complaint that can be resolved quickly or where there is a compelling reason for a case to be accelerated. More complex complaints may involve a delay whilst waiting to be allocated to a case officer. Currently the waiting time is approximately four to six months before being allocated to a case officer. Once your case is allocated we will contact you and the case officer will explain how they will progress your complaint.
In the COVID-19 pandemic climate, many public authorities are facing severe front line pressures and are re-deploying their resources to meet those demands. The Commissioner’s view is that public authorities require maximum flexibility at this time, to optimally deploy those resources and best respond to a national crisis.
Therefore, as a reasonable and proportionate regulator, the Commissioner has taken the decision to amend her casework approach (whilst it is necessary) and reduce the burden on public authorities in these unprecedented times.
If you wish to send any further documents while the case is awaiting allocation, please quote the ICO case reference number at the top of this correspondence.
Please be aware that this is an automated process. The information will not be read by a member of our staff and you will not receive a reply until your case is allocated to a case officer.
If you have any specific concerns before then, please contact our helpline on 0303 123 1113, ensuring that you quote your ICO case reference number.
Yours sincerely
Sent on behalf of
Group Manager
Information Commissioner’s Office
Dear Mr Gibbons,
Please find attached in relation to your request reference FOI2019/12673.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Gibbons,
Please find attached in relation to ICO investigation IC-97823-Z3F4, and
our reference FOI2019/12673.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
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Ceri Gibbons left an annotation ()
This case has now been referred to the Information Commissioner.