Now for a Freedom of Information Act request of a type which is very common in say the USA. This one asks for the offical meeting diaries and agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses of some of the Civil Servants in charge of the Identity Cards and National Identity Register scheme in the Home Office.
The impression they give is that they seem to be very willing to meet with private industry representatives and lobbyists, but not with any civil liberties and privacy campaigners. Perhaps this will be a chance for them to set the record straight.
Given the scale of the project disaster that we fear, it behooves Civil Servants to keep records and minutes of all of their meetings with their political bosses and with industry lobbyists and representaives, for when they face questioning before the inevitable Public inquiry or a Parliamentary Select Committee.
Since billions of pounds of taxpayers money and the privacy and security of all the general public for the rest of the 21st century is involved, it will not be acceptable for another outbreak of collective amnesia and lost or forgotten correspondence to occur in the Home Office, as it did apparently during the investigations which lead to the resignations of Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Beverely Hughes and Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Our second FOIA request to the Home Office:
Freedom of Information Act Request
Direct Communications Unit,
7th Floor Open Plan Suite
The Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London,
SW1H 9ATCopy sent by email to: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Microsoft Word format attachment: HO_foia_2.docSunday 23rd January 2005
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Formal Request for InformationDear Sir or Madam
Please provide me with the following information:
1. The official meeting diaries, agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses, involving Katherine Courtney, the Director of the Identity Cards Programme, with respect to the Identity Cards Programme.
2. The official meeting diaries and agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses, involving Stephen Harrison, Head of the Identity Card Policy Unit, with respect to the Identity Cards Programme
3. The official meeting diaries and agendas of meetings, travel and entertainment expenses, involving the newly appointed ID Cards - Head of Marketing, Communities Group Directorate - Home Office with respect to the Identity Cards Programme (or those of the person or persons standing in for this role if he/she has not yet been appointed).
http://www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk/index.asp?txtNavID=117&txtOverRideDocID=10067
Please provide the information ideally by publishing it on your public world wide website, or alternatively by email.In the unlikely event that this information is not already available in a standard electronic format, then please explain the reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.
If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information requested, please provide full details in advance, together with an explanation of any proposed charge
If you decide to withhold any of the information requested you should clearly explain why you have done so in your response, by reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation. If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the public interest, then you should clearly explain which public interests you have considered, and why you have decided that the public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the public interest in releasing the information.
I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as possible and in any event within 20 working days of receipt. i.e. by Tuesday 15th February 2005
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
If you require any clarification of this request please contact me as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
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