Dear Home Office,

Many thanks for your response to request 58660, which was received on 9 June 2020. Unfortunately, while the response was useful and much appreciated, it did not include all the information originally requested.

The original request was for:
- the date on which each chartered removal / deportation flight left the UK
- the number of people on board each flight
- the cost to the Home Office of chartering each flight

The response received on 9 June 2020 to request 58660 provided a full response to the first two questions, but not to the third.

As such, I would be very grateful if you could supply data as to the cost incurred by the Home Office for each flight that has left the UK after being chartered by the
Home Office for the purposes of deporting and/or administratively removing people from
the UK, for the period between 01/01/2016 to 09/04/2020.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Atkinson

Dear Home Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of the Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Cost of deportation and removal flights' (Reference Number: 59068).

It is the caseworker's position that disclosing the requested information - the cost of flights chartered for the purposes of deporting / administratively removing individuals from the UK between 01/01/2016 and 09/04/2020 - would, or would be likely to, prejudice commercial interests. It was therefore held that the public interest in disclosing this information was outweighed by the need to protect the commercial interests the body or bodies in question.

There is a clear precedent in favour of the disclosure of information of the kind being requested here - for example the information supplied in response to a previous FOI request entitled "Charter Flights (Escorts and Removals) Q4 October/November/December 2019." Further, the Home Office is to be commended for its transparency in publishing monthly its spending over £25,000, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio.... It should be noted that the information published there includes the amounts and dates of payments to contractors responsible for arranging travel for deportations and removals from the UK. It is therefore asserted that financial information relating to the cost of such activities is already reasonably available to any interested commercial partner, and that the public interest lies in favour of disclosure, so that the public can be assured that the Home Office is achieving value for money in its pursuit of chartered deportation and removal flights.

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,

Mary Atkinson

Dear FOI Requests,

Please note that a response to this internal review request is now extremely overdue. I have recently had recourse to the ICO regarding an overdue internal review request, which was upheld. I hope that on this occasion the department will supply a response promptly, without the need for intervention from the ICO. If there has been no response by Tuesday 10/11/2020, however, a complaint will have to be submitted, as this response was due on 22/07/2020.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Atkinson

Dear FOI Requests,

I hope that this finds you well. I received communication from the ICO dated 1 December 2020 stating that a response to this internal review request (59068) had been requested within 10 working days. The case reference from the ICO for this is IC-70619-G4F9. Today, 16 December, is the 11th working day since this communication from the ICO will have been received by yourselves. As such, please ensure the internal review is produced as soon as possible, in order to comply with the ICO's request.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Atkinson

Dear Home Office,

This is to inform you that I have today again written to the ICO to request further action regarding this request for an internal review.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Atkinson