Contacts with tobacco industry
Dear colleagues,
I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please provide a list of any and all contact your organisation and/or staff have had with British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International, as well as any other domestic or transnational tobacco companies or anyone representing the tobacco industry including subsidiaries of tobacco industry.
I would like this information for the period from 1 April 2021 to 20 February 2023.
Contact would primarily include attending or arranging meetings or functions, and responding to correspondence or phone calls.
Please break down the information by:
• Tobacco company or representative’s name
• Date of contact(s)
• Type of contact (meeting, email, letter, phone call, text/app message or video call, e-card or any other form of electronic communication)
• Place of contact, if relevant
• Purpose of contact
• Outcome of contact, including if no action taken
I request that the information be provided electronically. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request.
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.
If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email or phone and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for and discuss the request, my details are outlined below.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Raouf Alebshehy
Dear Raouf Alebshehy,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
The City of London (CoL), sometimes also called the City of London Corporation, acknowledges receipt of your two identical requests for information of 20 February 2023.
(Please note that, although the WDTK site lists the CoL at two places under two different names -
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/city_...
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/commo...
- where your identical requests are listed, the CoL is in fact one legal entity. Its full, official name is 'The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London'. We have informed the WDTK website that it is maintaining two sections for one body, and that it would be less confusing for applicants if the site referred to the CoL under one name instead of maintaining two lists and two names for the same legal entity, but it has declined to make the change. For further clarification of the position of the CoL under the FOIA, please see Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 of the FOIA, which describes the CoL as being subject to the FOIA with regard to 'The Common Council of the City of London, in respect of information held in its capacity as a local authority, police authority or port health authority').
Public authorities are required to respond to requests within the statutory timescale of 20 working days beginning from the first working day after they receive a request. The Act does not always require public authorities to disclose the information which they hold.
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority. The CoL is the local and police authority for the "Square Mile", ie the historic City of London, and not for London as a whole. Please see the following page containing a link to a map (City of London - Interactive Mapping), which shows the local authority area covered by the CoL:
https://www.mapping.cityoflondon.gov.uk/...
The CoL does have some functions, including Port Health Authority functions, which extend beyond the City boundary. For further information please see: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely,
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
Dear Raouf Alebshehy,
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 (FOIA) - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Following your identical requests of 20 February 2023, and our acknowledgement of 21 February 2023, the City of London (CoL) responds as follows:
You requested:
Please provide a list of any and all contact your organisation and/or staff have had with British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International, as well as any other domestic or transnational tobacco companies or anyone representing the tobacco industry including subsidiaries of tobacco industry.
I would like this information for the period from 1 April 2021 to 20 February 2023.
Contact would primarily include attending or arranging meetings or functions and responding to correspondence or phone calls.
Please break down the information by:
* Tobacco company or representative's name
* Date of contact(s)
* Type of contact (meeting, email, letter, phone call, text/app message or video call, e-card or any other form of electronic communication)
* Place of contact, if relevant
* Purpose of contact
* Outcome of contact, including if no action taken
The CoL can confirm that we have had no contact with any of the organisations/ businesses relating to the Tobacco industry, referenced in your request.
We hope that this response is of assistance.
If you wish to make a complaint about the way the CoL has managed your enquiry, please make your complaint in writing to email address: [email address] For a link to the CoL's FOI complaints procedure, please visit the following page: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Feedback, at the end of which is located the FOI complaints procedure. If, having used the CoL's FOI Complaints Procedure, you are still dissatisfied, you may request the Information Commissioner to investigate. Please contact: Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Telephone: (01625) 545700. Website: http://www.ico.org.uk/.
The FOIA applies to the CoL as a local authority, police authority and port health authority; and to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), which it manages. Subject to any other statutory provisions requiring the CoL to disclose information, release of information outside the scope of the Act is subject to the discretion of the CoL.
The CoL holds the copyright in this communication. Its supply does not give a right to re-use in a way that would infringe that copyright, for example, by making copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public or to any other person. Brief extracts of any of the material may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting, subject to an acknowledgement of the copyright owner.
Yours sincerely,
Information Officer
Comptroller & City Solicitor's Department
City of London
Tel: 020-7332 1243
www.cityoflondon.gov.uk
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