Maps of MoD Training Areas

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Ministry of Defence should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please provide me with maps of all Training Areas currently used by Regular, Reserve and Cadet Forces personnel.

For the sake of simplicity please provide each Training Area map in a separate PDF.

Yours faithfully,

TR Matthews

DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER),

Dear TR Matthews,

Your request has been logged under our reference 2018/01325 and the target date for response is 23/02/2018.

Yours sincerely

DIO Secretariat

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DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Matthews

 

Please find attached response to your recent FOI request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

DIO Secretariat

Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Kingston Road, Sutton Coldfield, West
Midlands B75 7RL

Dear DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER),

Thank you for your response. Please accept my apologies for my request being too broad. I note that it would take, on your estimate, 62 days to recover the maps I requested.

Is it not that case that the MoD employs Cartographers within the Royal Engineers to produce these maps. Perhaps it may be prudent to check with them before dismissing my request as too onerous?

I would expect an arm of Her Majesty's Armed Forces to have a centrally held electronically accessible database of maps which can be provided to me.

Thank you for directing me to the DIO Training Estate website. Not all maps are on there.

If this task still remains too onerous, having properly considered the points raised above, please inform me so that I can narrow my request. For clarity I only require training area maps within mainland UK.

Yours sincerely

TR Matthews

DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

1 Attachment

Good Morning Mr Matthews,

 

Please see attached the response to your recent correspondence dated 27
February 2018.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

DIO Secretariat

[name removed]

Miss [name removed] [name removed] |

| Defence Infrastructure Organisation |

Kingston Road| Sutton Coldfield| West Midlands| B75 7RL

Civ: 0121 311 2277 | Mil: 94421 2277 |Fax: 0121 311 3809

Email: [1][email address]

Please address all official Ministerial business to: [2]DIO Sec-Parli
(MULTIUSER)[email address]

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER),

I am disappointed to note that it has taken such a long time for the MoD to provide me with the same generic response as was provided on the last occasion.

I do not accept the assertion that it would take a disproportionately long period of time to complete my request. My view is that the MoD cannot rely on this exemption. It is important to note that, in accordance with Reserve Land Forces Regulations, maps for instructional and training purposes can be viewed and demanded utilising the MoD catalogue of Geographic Products (GSGS 5893) on MoD Form 88.

I cannot envisage a situation where completing a form would take 62 days.

Please release this information now or I will demand an internal review.

Again, please do not wait until the statutory limit to respond to this prompt as this would be at odds with the spirit of the FoI Act.

Yours exasperatedly
TR Matthews

DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

Good Afternoon Mr Matthews,

Thank you for your further email of 21 March 2018. I must advise you that the position remains unchanged, as advised in our response to you of 23 February 2018 and 21 March 2018, we will not be able to answer your request without exceeding the appropriate limit and advice was provided to you on ways in which to reduce/refine your request to bring the cost of dealing with this down to the appropriate limit.

I can advise you that the information you require is not held centrally and would therefore involve at least 62 days of effort to locate, retrieve and extract this information.

In the response to you of 23 February 2018 and 21 March 2018 I advised that you may wish to refine or reduce your request to a small number of specific sites or certain units or by regional training areas managed by the Ministry of Defence's (MOD), Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

If you wish to refine or reduce this request to a small number of specific sites or certain units or regional training areas, please do so by return to [email address]. I must advise you that any further correspondences requesting the same information will not be responded to and will be archived.

If you wish to complain about the handling of your request, or the content of this response, you can request an independent internal review by contacting the Information Rights Compliance team, Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email address]). Please note that any request for an internal review should be made within 40 working days of the date of this response.

If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may raise your complaint directly to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website at https://ico.org.uk/.

Kind Regards

DIO Secretariat

| Defence Infrastructure Organisation |

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Dear DIO Sec-Parli (MULTIUSER),

I must stress do not accept the assertion that it would take a disproportionately long period of time to complete my request. My view is that the MoD cannot rely on this exemption.

It is important to note that, in accordance with Reserve Land Forces Regulations, maps for instructional and training purposes can be viewed and demanded utilising the MoD catalogue of Geographic Products (GSGS 5893) on MoD Form 88.

It cannot stand to reason that it would take 62 days to fill out the form described above and submit the request.

Please conduct an internal review as to how the view was reached that it would take 62 days to process my request and provide me with the information requested. This is not an arduous task nor is it an unreasonable request.

Yours sincerely,

TR Matthews

CIO-FOI-IR (MULTIUSER), Ministry of Defence

Dear Mr Matthews,

We acknowledge receipt of your email of 1 May 2018 and can confirm that an internal review will be conducted of your request for information (reference above).

The Department's target for completing internal reviews is 20 working days and we therefore aim to complete the review and respond to you by 31 May 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 review will involve a full, independent reconsideration of the handling of the case as well as the final decision.

Yours sincerely,

MOD Information Rights Compliance Team

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