Ex MOD vehicles: 89KF03, 51KL07, 51KL10...
Dear Ministry of Defence,
I would like to make a freedom of information request for the following:
Merlin Reports
(JAMES Maintenance Record)
and any other documentation / information held relation to ex MOD vehicles with the following VRN/registrations:
89KF03, 51KL07, 51KL10, EV69AA, EV70AA,
EV71AA, EV72AA, EV73AA, EV74AA, 84KK46,
84KK48, 19RR71, DU34AA.
Yours faithfully,
Tyler Binge
Dear Mr Binge,
Please find attached a response to your FOI request.
Kind regards,
DE&S Secretariat Parliamentary
Maple 0A, MOD Abbey Wood, #2043, Bristol, BS34 8JH
[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D3FF44.E2EE3F80
Defence Equipment & Support
References
Visible links
Dear DES Sec-FOI (MULTIUSER),
In relation to the following point:
"Under section 26(1) of the FOI Act, information is exempt if it is likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces. The balance of public interest was found to be in favour of withholding the information for 89KF03, 51KL07, 51KL10, EV69AA, EV70AA, EV71AA, EV72AA, EV73AA, EV74AA, 84KK46, and 84KK48 on the grounds that disclosure would likely impact on ongoing operations by allowing enemies to draw conclusions about Armed Forces capabilities."
The most recent of the above VRN was released more than 17 years ago therefore section 26(1) of the FOI Act has no bearing in regard "to disclosure would likely impact on ongoing operations by allowing enemies to draw conclusions about Armed Forces capabilities."
Not withstanding the fact that enemies are able to ascertain that these vehicles are no longer in service via means of the publication you quote in your response.
In relation to the following point:
Additionally, section 21(1) of the FOI Act states that information is exempt if it is reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means. The department has undertaken a routine review of the MERLIN archive and the final version of this has since been released as part of a previous FOI request, which can be accessed at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio....
The above mentioned publication does not contain the same scope of information that a PDF of the MERLIN provide's, therefore the information is not reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means. This mean's section 21(1) of the FOI Act does not apply in this case.
Yours sincerely,
Tyler Binge
Dear Mr Binge,
Your complaint about the use of exemptions has been forwarded to MOD Information Rights. Under the Code of Practice associated with the Freedom of Information Act, public authorities are obiiged to treat any complaint as a request for a review. We therefore acknowledge receipt of your email of 29 August 2018 and will conduct an internal review of the handling of your information request by Defence and Equipment Support on behalf of the Department.
The Department's target for completing internal reviews is 20 working days and we therefore aim to complete the review and respond to you 26 September 2018. While we are working hard to achieve this, in the interests of providing you with a more realistic indication of when you should expect a response, we should advise that the majority are currently taking between 20 and 40 working days to complete. The internal review that will involve a full, independent reconsideration of the handling of the RFIs as well as the final decision.
Yours sincerely,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Binge
Please see attached MOD's internal review of your request, our reference FOI2018/10896, with apologies for the delay.
Regards,
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
Dear Mr Binge,
Please find attached the Merlin Template referred to in the internal review dated 10 October 2018.
Regards
MOD Information Rights Compliance Team
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