Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

You have recently responded to my FOI request (your ref: FOI2019/01619) and you have informed me that in 2016, a cross-government working group was set up to develop policy options for the 'open address register' announced in the Spring of 2016.

You have also told me that this activity was cancelled after the election of 2017 and that there are no recommendations or draft proposals from this work.

As referenced in my request, there was another request for budget information on this project, made in 2017 (your ref: FOI2017/23071)

In October 2017, after the policy development had been cancelled, that FOI request was denied on the grounds that policy development was still ongoing. This seems as though it may be in contravention of the ICO regulations - do you have any comment to make?

Please would you now provide me with the information on how the £5million was spent on that policy development project? I would like to know the total amount spent and whether or not any remaining money was returned to the Treasury. It would be helpful to know a rough breakdown of what the money was spent on - I do not know what budget streams might have been used/recorded and so it would be helpful if you would provide as detailed a breakdown as you have available.

Thank you for your time taken in this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Davidson

Dear Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy,

Can you confirm that you have received my FOI request, submitted on 4th March 2019?

The details of the request can be seen here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...

Yours faithfully,

Robert Davidson