Committee on state visits

The request was refused by Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

the Prime Minister's Spokesperson today referred to a so-called "committee for state visits" which apparently operates in (or convened by) the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and advises the Prime Minister, through the Foreign Secretary, on state visits. The exact name of this committee may be different.

I would like to request access to the following information

1) Membership of this Committee - please provide either name and position / job title for each member, or, if a member is a junior civil servant and does fall under the data protection exemption, simply the position / job title of that member.

2) Terms of Reference of the committee

3) Minutes of the last meeting. If the minutes of the last meeting have not yet been approved, please provide draft minutes. If decisions have been taken in writing since the last formal meeting, please provide these decisions also.

Yours faithfully,

John Roberts

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

further to my previous message of today, I now understand that the Prime Minister's Spokesperson has most likely been referring to the "Royal Visits Committee". Please treat my request as referring to that committee.

Yours faithfully,

John Roberts

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear John Roberts,

Thank you for your FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It has been assigned a unique reference number (above) and has been passed to the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you should your request need clarification.

We received your request on 30 January 2017 and will aim to respond within 20 working days, following date of receipt.

Yours sincerely

FOI and DPA Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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Mr Brown left an annotation ()

Great request! I was about to make this....

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Please find attached a letter with regards to your FOI query.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Protocol Directorate

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

 

 

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Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

many thanks for your message, this is well received and I await your substantive response with interest.

Yours faithfully,

John Roberts

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Further to our letter of 28 February 2017, please find attached our reply
to your enquiry.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Protocol Directorate

FCO

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Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Foreign and Commonwealth Office's handling of my FOI request 'Committee on state visits', your reference 0111-17.

I confirm that you have answered questions 1 and 2 of my original request to the extent required by law and I do not ask you to review this part of the answer.

However, I wish to challenge your response to question 3 of my request (viz. Minutes, or draft Minutes of the last meeting, and any decisions taken in writing since last meeting). While I do acknowledge that ss. 27(1)(c), 35(1)(a), 37(1)(a), 38(1)(a) and 41(1) may have some bearing on this request, I disagree that the public interest is best served by denying access to the records sought, and I certainly dispute that it is necessary to withhold the records concerned in full. It does not appear from your response whether any thought has been given to partial disclosure at all.

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,

John Roberts

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear John Roberts,

Thank you for your request for an Internal Review of our response to your FOI Request Ref 0111-17. It has been passed to the relevant department within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with and they will respond to you with the outcome of the review.

We received your request on 03 March 2017 and will aim to respond within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

FOI and DPA Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roberts

 

Further to our letter of 2 March 2017, please find attached our reply to
your request for an internal review.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Protocol Directorate

FCO

Matthew Rice | Assistant Desk Officer, Royal, Ceremonial and Honours Unit
(RCHU), Protocol Directorate
Foreign & Commonwealth Office | Room K.G.02, King Charles Street, London
SW1A 2AH
*: [1][email address] | (: +44 (0)20 7008 5512 | Web:
[2]www.gov.uk/fco 

 

 

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Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

you intended to reply to my request for an Internal Review (0111-17) by Wednesday 26 April, i.e. today.

Yours faithfully,

John Roberts

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roberts,

 

Further to our letter of 31 March 2017, please find attached our reply to
your request for an internal review.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Protocol Directorate

FCO

 

 

 

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.gov.uk/fco
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/