Contacts with tobacco industry

Department of Finance (Northern Ireland) did not have the information requested.

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

DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

Good afternoon,

The Department of Finance acknowledges receipt of your request for information – your reference number is DOF/2023-0078. In line with FOI/EIR legislation, the department has up to 20 working days to respond to your request and therefore you should expect a response no later than 21/03/2023.

The department’s Right to Know leaflet provides an outline of your rights under the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations, and explains how your request will be dealt with. You can also read the department’s Information Access Requests Privacy Notice.

Please note, information released by the Department of Finance in response to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations requests is routinely published on the department’s FOI/EIR Disclosure Log.

Please also note that Land and Property Services (LPS) is an agency within DoF and will be included in the DoF response.

Regards
FOI/EIR Team

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DoF FOI, Department of Finance (Northern Ireland)

1 Attachment

Good morning,

 

Please see attached response to your recent request for information.

 

Regards

FOI/EIR Team