Particulars about the seven terrrorist plots that have been 'foiled' in the past year.

Anthony Bennett made this Freedom of Information request to Home Office This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

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

Dear Home Office,

In the Daily Telegraph yesterday (16 November 2015) I read these words about ‘seven terrorist plots’ that had been ‘foiled’ in the past year:

QUOTE: “British intelligence services have foiled seven terror attacks in the past year, including one in the last month, David Cameron has revealed. The Prime Minister warned that while the plots were on a smaller scale than what has been witnessed in Paris, the attacks in the French capital were "the sort of thing we have been preparing for" and that such attacks "could happen in London". Mr Cameron told a press conference at the G20: “Seven is the correct number – obviously I can't go into too much detail. It is seven plots that have been started in the previous months.”

“Number 10 earlier clarified the number of British terror attacks that have been foiled in recent months after conflicting reports. The clarification suggests that a terrorist attack on UK soil may have been thwarted in the last few weeks given comments by a spy chief last month. On October 28 - less than three weeks ago - Andrew Parker, the director general of MI5, said there had been six plots stopped in the last year. The Prime Minister's official spokesman declined to be drawn on any detail of the plots”. UNQUOTE

Other news media reported the same facts.

I am requesting information about these foiled terrorist plots. Whilst I fully understand that under normal situations, intelligence matters must remain secret, nevertheless:
(a) These foiled terrorist plots have been made public by the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Head of MI5, Andrew Parker, in recent months (and quite rightly too) and
(b) The British public has heightened concern because of the number of terrorist plots referred to (seven) and because of the recent atrocities in Paris.

The British public needs to know (1) what these plots were (2) where they were being planned and (3) who was behind them. We need this information so that each and every one of us becomes aware of the source of the threat and where attacks are most likely to occur. I suggest it is inadequate for the government to merely refer to ‘seven terrorist plots’ and then keep us all completely in the dark about them, giving us no more information.

I therefore ask the following Freedom of Information Act questions:
1. Give the precise dates (or if not known, give the approximate dates) when these seven terrorist attacks were planned to take place.
2. In each case, give the locations where these terrorist attacks were planned to take place.
3. In each case, state how many individuals are known or thought to have been involved in conspiring to commit each terrorist attack.
4. In each case, state how many individuals have been:
(a) arrested and questioned and
(b) charged with a criminal offence (if charged, state what offence they were charged with) and
(c) successfully prosecuted ad convicted of terrorist-related offences.
5. Overall, out of the total numbers involved in planning these terrorist offences, please state how many are now either in custody or prison.

Yours faithfully,

Anthony Bennett

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FOI Requests, Home Office

Mr. Bennett,

Thank you for contacting the Home Office with your request.

This has been assigned to a caseworker (case ref 37614). We will aim to send you a full response by 16/12/2015 which is twenty working days from the date we received your request.

If you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

P. Zebedee
FOI Requests
Home Office

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OSCTFOI, Home Office

1 Attachment

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Bennett

 

Thank you for your email. Please note our interim response.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

FOI Team

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Miriam Stevenson left an annotation ()

An excellent and important FOIR. I look forwards to the Home Office's comprehensive response.

OSCTFOI, Home Office

1 Attachment

OFFICIAL

Dear Mr Bennett

Thank you for your email. Please note our response.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

FOI Team

 

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Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

Miriam Stevenson left an annotation ()

Very disappointing response but not surprising.

Pat James (Account suspended) left an annotation ()

The response is complete BS and the exemptions are invalid, due to the request being for clarification of the Prime Minister's statement and not a Home Office bulletin or brief.

Stephen Frost left an annotation ()

Dear Anthony Bennett, You should take this further, to the Information Commissioner. Your FOIA request was perfectly reasonable, and it is very much in the public interest that your request is answered properly. Best wishes, Stephen Frost