UK FOIA requests - Spy Blog

Openness Team
Cabinet Office
Room 4.45
Admiralty Arch
The Mall
London SW1A 2WH
Email: Openness.Team@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk

Freedom of Information Act request

Please disclose and publish the following two reports:

Firstly:

Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner for 2005,
by the previous outgoing ICC, Rt. Hon . Sir Swinton Thomas

Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 section 58 Co-operation with and reports by s. 57 Commissioner.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2000/00023--f.htm#58

"(4) As soon as practicable after the end of each calendar year, the Interception of Communications Commissioner shall make a report to the Prime Minister with respect to the carrying out of that Commissioner's functions."

and

"(6) The Prime Minister shall lay before each House of Parliament a copy of every annual report made by the Interception of Communications Commissioner under subsection (4), together with a statement as to whether any matter has been excluded from that copy in pursuance of subsection (7)."

Secondly:

Report of the Intelligence Services Commissioner for 2005,
by the previous outgoing ISC, Lord Justice Simon Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 section 60 Co-operation with and reports by s. 59 Commissioner.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2000/00023--f.htm#60

"(2) As soon as practicable after the end of each calendar year, the Intelligence Services Commissioner shall make a report to the Prime Minister with respect to the carrying out of that Commissioner's functions."

and

"(4) The Prime Minister shall lay before each House of Parliament a copy of every annual report made by the Intelligence Services Commissioner under subsection (2), together with a statement as to whether any matter has been excluded from that copy in pursuance of subsection (5)."

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Parliament has now risen for the Christmas and New Year recess, so it is difficult to see how, short of recalling Parliament, either of these reports can be laid before Parliament in this calendar year, as they should have been according to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Surely the 2006 reports should be nearly complete by now ?

N.B. all the previous such Annual reports were submitted in June or July of the year following the calendar year which they report on, and were laid before Parliament and were available online in October or November.

The other Annual Report under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, is that of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner. His report for the year 2005 - 2006 has been submitted, laid before Parliament and the Scottish Parliament and published online last July 2006.
i.e.

"Annual Report of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner to the Prime Minister and to Scottish Ministers for 2005 - 2006"
http://www.surveillancecommissioners.gov.uk/docs1/annualreport200506.pdf

Please provide the information ideally by publishing it on your public world wide website, or alternatively by email.

Ideally this should *NOT* be in the form of a "copy and paste" locked Adobe .pdf file, or similar, attachment.

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. (excluding the Christmas and New Year public holidays) by Tuesday 23rd January 2007

Yours sincerely

[name]

[address]