Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please provide me with an electronic copy of any guidance materials or handbooks regarding the Developed Vetting interview process, checklists of questions to ask etc. which are issued to your staff.

Yours faithfully,
S Elibank

Dear Ellis, Carmel E1 (DBS RES-Sec-Spt1),

I am surprised.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Elibank

Dear Ellis, Carmel E1 (DBS RES-Sec-Spt1),

Just a friendly reminder that your final response is due by this Thursday. If it doesn't arrive, or if you purport to extend time any further, I will complain to the ICO immediately.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Elibank

Dear [email address] on behalf of Defence Business Services Secretariat,

Please can you arrange an internal review into FOI2019/13308.

Your refusal notice is illogical and I do not accept that the exemption is engaged (or, alternatively, if the exemption is engaged - which is denied - then I do not accept that the public interest favours withholding the requested information).

You state that disclosure could "jeopardise the methodologies used in national security vetting assessments". However, this does not make sense. It certainly cannot cover the requested information in its entirety. The request included, for instance, "checklists of questions to ask". Such questions are, by the nature of their function, disclosed routinely to members of the public who undergo DV interviews. Such people - especially those who are refused DV - have that knowledge. If it doesn't jeopardise national security for you to reveal your lists of questions to interviewees who have failed a security assessment, the risk to national security must be low.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Elibank