US interference with legal processes in the UK

Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not have the information requested.

daniela drysdale

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

Following the suggestions in your reply to my previous FOI application (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/d...), I am sending you a new request for information:

- Please provide me with any information held by the FCO, recorded in any format - including but not limited to correspondence to, from and within your ministerial department - relating to any
instances in which the US Administration or any other official bodies in the US requested (or compelled/ tried to compel) or expressed a wish or opinion (either explicit or implied) that the UK government/authorities should prevent, in any way, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (England and Wales) from allowing a civil matter to succeed or be heard in court.

- Please be advised that I am only interested in civil matters which were ongoing in the Employment Appeal Tribunal during the period: 15 August 2012 to 15 February 2013 .

- Please also note that I am not interested in civil cases in which the US Administration or any other US official bodies were named parties to the legal proceedings.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Daniela Drysdale

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

FOI Request, Ref: 0539-15

Dear Ms Drysdale,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been assigned a unique reference number (above) and has been passed to the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you should your request need clarification.

We received your request on 04 June 2015 and will aim to respond within 20 working days, following the date of receipt.

Yours sincerely

FOI and DPA Team
FCO

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

2 Attachments

 

Dear Ms Drysdale

 

Please find attached a letter regarding your recent FOI request.

 

Kind Regards

 

North America Department

 

 

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References

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2. http://www.gov.uk/fco
3. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/

daniela drysdale

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

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

Thank you for your reply 2 July 2015 in which you informed me that the information I had requested was not held by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Considering the fact that, as I have been credibly informed and as my evidence suggests, the US Administration did interfere in UK civil matters within the scope and time frame specified in my request, your lack of information on this subject is rather unconvincing.

I should therefore like to ask you to conduct a review of Foreign and Commonwealth Office's handling of my FOI request 'US interference with legal processes in the UK' – a review which should also answer my questions as to:

- what categories of information you have searched

- how the search was performed

- whether it is possible that correspondence that could have potentially provided answers to my FOI request might have been destroyed either manually by FCO staff or automatically by your systems

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

Yours faithfully,

Daniela Drysdale

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Dear Ms Drysdale,

Thank you for your request for an Internal Review of your FOI Request Ref 0539-15. It has been passed to the relevant department within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal with. They will be in touch with you with an outcome.

We received your request on 07 July 2015 and will aim to respond within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

FOI and DPA Team

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Drysdale

 

Please find attached a letter in response to your request for an Internal
Review for FOI reference number 0539-15.

 

Kind Regards

 

North America Department

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.gov.uk/fco
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/

Dear Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

Thank you for your response to my request for an internal review. I was glad to learn that you were satisfied with the search method that had been applied in connection with my FOI request 0539-15.

The outcome of your internal review leaves, however, a few matters still unclear:

- Your search, it seems, was confined to NAD staff, FCO Legal Advisers and the British Embassy in Washington. My request related to the entire FCO, including the office of the Secretary of State etc. While I can understand that some departments within the FCO would not be likely to hold the information I was after, some others, should have also been included in the search.

- I noted the terms used by you to search the FCO data systems. Whether these terms were appropriate, it is a debatable matter. (Did your search check the title/subject line only or did it also check the body of the documet ?) I would, however, point out that my FOI request asked you whether you held the data I was after, not whether certain types of search would yield the relevant information. I was expecting an unqualified answer: the FCO either have the information or they don’t.

- Your statement: “The nature of FCO IT systems means that FCO staff members are at liberty to delete as necessary from our email systems. However, any personal information relating to staff or Employment Appeal Tribunals should be registered as necessary on departmental shared drives” does not clarify my question as to whether correspondence that could have potentially provided answers to my this request might have been destroyed either manually by FCO staff or automatically by FCO systems.
Do you mean to say that the FCO doesn’t have any standard policy, IT system function or little rule that would cause some electronic correspondence to be deleted or disappear from your systems after, say, three months? This seems to be the case with emails sent from Downing Street computers to various government departments. Does the FCO deal with such emails in a similar manner?
Please also note that the information I was interested in was not “personal information relating to staff.

I should be grateful if you could further clarify the above points.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Daniela Drysdale