Setting a Better Example.

AIDAN QUINN made this Freedom of Information request to Northern Ireland Office This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

Dear Northern Ireland Office,

We all know, everyone appreciates, the undoubted difficulty of progressing anything in the traditional NICS/NIO strictly enforced Not an Inch, Note and File, No Communication, sack ‘em all, context. No one wants to judge.

Any kind of career progression, negotiation, fraud detection, investment attraction, process, or indeed FOI Query, can take an age, with long periods of no apparent progress at all.

Potential investors , insurers too, look at the lack of progress, at the stress levels, and run the proverbial mile. Outsourcers involved in the implementation of Noting and Filing are seen as potential Turner and Newalls.

I wonder if there is any record of NIO being advised from any source, that rather than just shouting Junk and denying every thing for decades on end, it should perhaps think rather in terms of setting a better example, by eg making clear that support for traditional Noting And Filing would in future play no part in official HMG policy?

We now have an excellent new Secretary of State and progress in withdrawing support for Note and File Only Policies really could make such a difference.

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN

Dear Northern Ireland Office,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Northern Ireland Office's handling of my FOI request 'Setting a Better Example.'.

Things are just taking too long. If NIO support for Noting and Filing were to be formally withdrawn, the province would undoubtedly be a better, safer, more respected and Investable place. Please do what you can.

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

Yours faithfully,

AIDAN QUINN

FOI, Northern Ireland Office

1 Attachment

Mr Quinn
Thank you for your email today in relation to an Internal Review.  I
apologise for the delay in replying to your original email regarding
'Setting a better example'. 
You should have received the message below in response to your original
email.
Mr Quinn
Thank you for your email below.  I am writing to advise you that
as your question is not a valid FOI request, the FOI Team will not be
taking any further action to process your question.
Many thanks
Freedom of Information Team
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Dear FOI,
Hi,many thanks for the rapid response. Don't worry, in Note and File Only cases, misunderstanding is absolutely inevitable. No fault of the staff involved.

The thing is that NIO Ministers shouting Junk is getting in the way of the smooth operation of the devolution settlement you see, and is thought by many to be a NIO concern.

Many thanks for giving me the chance to clear up any confusion.

Yours sincerely,
Good Luck. I wish you well.

AIDAN QUINN

Dear FOI,
Hey, I had hoped that by this stage NIO would have felt able to make its condemnation of things like Noting and Filing Only and the consequent creation of a community of Officially Ostracised Persons (OOPs) just a little clearer.
However if this is not to be, then it’ s not to be. Things are as they are.
Perhaps it’s best , and if you don’t mind, if this FOI Query is just quietly withdrawn, at least for the moment.
Good Luck. I wish you well.

Yours sincerely,

AIDAN QUINN