Dear Department for Exiting the European Union,

It has been mooted this weekend that the various government departments are conducting impact assessments on the effect of the various Brexit outcomes (hard, soft, multi-coloured, no deal) on their areas and that there may be some reticence about publishing these. This allegation of secrecy seems spurred on by the recent whistle-blower action that revealed details of such a report from the Department of Health.

It is, of course, in the interests of a democratic Brexit that the public be given such information, well in advance of the Brexit date.

While these reports may be being made by other departments, I can only assume that the Department for Exiting the EU acts as the central hub for all such reports - indeed, I suspect you must be commissioning them or at least, setting the deadlines so that your staff and politicians are able to conduct their duties properly.

I therefore request that you would provide a list (spreadsheet) that details all the impact assessments expected or already received by your department, covering the period from when your department was set up, to the end of 2017. Please include the name of the impact assessment, the department tasked with producing it, the deadline for creation (or submission to your department, whichever you set) and either a copy of the report if you have it, or a date for when it would be made available to the public.

Please note, if you do not wish for these reports to be made public for any reason (not in national interest etc), please provide the name, department and deadline information - do not simply deny this request. There can be no reason, to my mind, for denying release of that 'metadata.'

If you feel that it is not in your power to release the impact assessments, then please add a contact name and email for each report in the spreadsheet of metadata.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Davidson

Dear Department for Exiting the European Union,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Exiting the European Union's handling of my FOI request 'List of impact assessments from all government departments'.

Your refusal to provide the information is mostly defended because release of the information would damage the UK's economic interests or cause damage to international relations. These excuses are not warranted in this case. In my original request, I did ask for copies of the impact assessment but I also said that if these were deemed too sensitive (as you have responded) then I would accept the metadata, detailing which impact assessments had been commissioned, from which department and for what deadline.

I put it to you that this metadata is not damaging to negotiations or the the national interest because it merely describes what impact assessments you are conducting, not the findings of those assessments.

Another part of my request was that you provide contact details for the relevant person in charge of the assessment in any case where you did not have direct oversight of it. You responded by saying you are exempted from giving out personal details. I fail to see how the professional contact details of a public servant are 'personal details' but I withdraw this part of the request regardless. It would be sufficient for you to provide me with the metadata about which department is providing which assessment and for what deadline. I can contact the department responsible from there.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/l...

Yours faithfully,

Robert Davidson