Dear Home Office,

Please consider the following as a request for the disclosure of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2010.

I am requesting information about the number of cases referred to the Referred Casework Unit. 1) For the years 2015-2019 inclusive, kindly disclose the number of applications for entry clearance as a spouse, fiance, civil partner or same-sex partner were referred to the Referred Casework Unit.

2) If possible, please also disclose the numbers of referred cases for each of those years which were granted and refused. However, if this would push the current request for information over the cost limit, please simply respond to point 1) of this request.

If this request is too wide or unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and assist those seeking information.

Yours faithfully,
Mary Atkinson

Dear Home Office,

Many thanks for your timely response to this request for information about the numbers of referrals to the Referred Casework Unit. I appreciate that the request in its original form would exceed the cost limit for FOI requests. As such, please disclose the number of referrals received by the Referred Casework Unit relating to Appendix FM during 2019 alone.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Atkinson

Dear FOI Requests,

Please accept my apologies for the very delayed response. The case reference for the original request was 58264.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Atkinson

Dear FOI Requests,

Many thanks for this. I was responding to a request to clarify the reference number of the original request, because I was following up with a narrowed request, after receiving a response on 31 March 2020 that indicated that the information requested originally could not be disclosed due to the cost limit.

This request for clarification of the reference number of the original request can be found here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Yours sincerely,

Mary Atkinson

Dear Home Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Home Office's handling of my FOI request 'Referrals to the Referred Casework Unit'.

My original request was exempted on cost grounds, and it was asserted that there would be no method by which the information being requested could be extracted within the cost limit. However, data previously published regarding the work of the Referred Casework Unit suggests that A) the data being requested here exists in a reportable format and b) the numbers (at least until 2015) were so low that it is difficult to surmise why extracting it would cost over £600.

Therefore, I am hereby requesting that a full internal review be carried out into the handling of this request.

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

Yours faithfully,

Mary Atkinson

Dear Home Office,

In regard to my request for an internal review, submitted on 5 May 2020, I have yet to receive confirmation that said internal review is being carried out. Please could you confirm this at your earliest convenience, as 24 working days have already passed since I received confirmation that the request for an internal review had been successfully received. Please note that the government's Code of Practice on FOIs states that a target date for completion of internal reviews should be communicated no later than 20 working days after receipt of said internal review request.

Yours faithfully,

Mary Atkinson

Dear FOI Requests,

The case number of the original request for which I requested an internal review is 58638.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Atkinson