The Consultation Process paras 20 to 23
The Consultation Process
20. This consultation process is being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office Code of Practice on consultation, and will last twelve weeks. Comments are invited by 30th August 2006; it may not be possible to take account of response received after that date as the Government will want to finalise the code for the approval of Parliament as soon as possible.
21. It is intended to publish a summary of responses to this consultation on the Home Office web site and information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).
22. The information you send us may be passed to colleagues within the Home Office, the Government or related agencies.
Please ensure that your response is marked clearly if you wish your response and name to be kept confidential. If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.
23. Confidential responses will be included in any statistical summary of numbers of comments received and views expressed.