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
Thank you for your e-mail, requesting that certain information is made available to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations 2004. The Council has now started to process your request.
The Council always aims to disclose information as quickly as possible. However, if for some reason we cannot complete your request within 20 working days (ie by 20/03/2023) we will write to you again before that date to explain why and to let you know when you will receive the information. Please remember that documents sent by post may take few extra days to reach you.
The Council will normally disclose all the information which you have requested unless there is a good reason for not doing so. If any information will not be disclosed because it is exempt, we will write to you and explain why. Please note that, whilst the Council will disclose documents which already exist and which contain the information which you have requested, the Council is not required to compile documents specifically to deal with your request.
Once the information has been identified, the Council can also ask that you pay a fee to cover the costs of any printing, photocopying, postage, etc., for processing and delivering the information to you. Details of any fee to be paid will be notified to you as soon as possible.
Please quote the reference number 23/140 in any future correspondence about this request.
If you are dissatisfied with this response, then you may ask the Council to conduct an internal review of your case by writing to the Council’s FOI Team ([Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council request email]). If you are still not content after the Council has conducted an internal review of your case, then you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the internal review procedure provided by the Borough Council.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted in writing at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Please quote the reference number at the top of this email in any future correspondence about this request.
Adrian Stanfield
Freedom of Information Co-Ordinator
website: www.tmbc.gov.uk
Dear Raouf,
Re: FOI 23/140
I refer to your request for information dated 20 February 2023 and given
the reference number above. I have considered this request under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”).
You requested the following information from the Council:
All contact our 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 for the period from 1 April 2021 to 20
February 2023.
I can confirm that our organisation and/or staff have had no contact 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 for the period from 1
April 2021 to 20 February 2023.
Internal Review
If you are dissatisfied with this response, you can request an internal
review of the decision by making a request to [1][Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council request email].
Complain to the Information Commissioner
If you are not content after the Council has conducted an internal review
of your case, then you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner
(ICO) for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted in
writing at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely
Linda Hibbs
Head of Housing & Health
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council
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