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Request sent to Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform by Steve Hankin on 16 September 2008.
Request to Home Office by Watching Them, Watching Us. Annotated by Watching Them, Watching Us on 9 October 2008.
Response by Home Office to Julian Todd on 10 November 2008.
Intercept Modernisation Programme
A Freedom of Information request to Home Office by Becky Hogge
Currently overdue a response from Home Office. By law, the response had to be prompt but no later than 24 September 2008. They are 58 days late, you can complain by requesting an internal review.
Becky Hogge
27 August 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
According to a written answer submitted to the Earl of Northesk on
8 July 2008 by Lord West of Spithead, Parliamentary Under-Secretary
(Security and Counter-terrorism), Home Office:
"the objective of the Intercept Modernisation Programme (IMP) is to
maintain the UK's lawful intercept and communications data
capabilities in the changing communications environment. It is a
cross-government programme, led by the Home Office, to ensure that
our capability to lawfully intercept and exploit data when fighting
crime and terrorism is not lost. It was established in response to
my right honourable friend the Prime Minister's national security
remit in 2006."
The following information is requested under the Freedom of
Information Act for the period from January 2007 to date:
-Agenda and minutes of all meetings of the Intelligence and
Security Liaison Group (and prior and subsequent re-namings of this
entity);
-Agenda and minutes of all meetings of the Government-Industry
Forum (once called the Government Industry Encryption Forum);
-Any feasibility studies, or budgetary forecasts produced by the
Home Office or their consultants relating to the Intercept
Modernisation Programme, including breakdown in terms of costs to
the taxpayer and cost to private industry;
-Draft or other plans for the technical architecture of the system;
-Agenda and minutes of any meetings, other than those mentioned
above, between communications service providers and the Home Office
on the subject of the Intercept Modernisation Programme; and
-Copies of correspondence regarding the Intercept Modernisation
Programme, including expressions of concern from either
communications service providers, civil servants, elected officials
or civil society.
Please include copies of material which you hold in the form of
paper and electronic records, including emails.
This information should be supplied by email, unless the total size
is greater than 10MB, in which case a CD-ROM is preferable. If you
are not able to provide the information in this format then please
explain why not, when you provide the information in another
format.
If you decide to withhold any of the information requested, please
explain clearly why you have done so in your response, by reference
to the legislation. If your decision to withhold is based upon an
evaluation of the public interest then please 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.
If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information
requested then please provide full details in advance together with
an explanation of any proposed charge.
We look forward to hearing from you promptly, as required by the
legislation, and in any case within 20 working days. We would be
grateful if you could acknowledge safe receipt of this request by
email.
Yours faithfully
Becky Hogge Executive Director, Open Rights Group
7th Floor, 100 Grays Inn Road London WC1X 8AL +44 (0)20 7096 1079
info@openrightsgroup.org
Richard McMillan left an annotation (25 September 2008)
FYI: Response from the HO, read more here: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/09/2...
We are considering your information request. Although the Freedom of Information Act carries a presumption in favour of disclosure, it provides exemptions which may be used to refuse to confirm whether or not we hold information, or where we do, to withhold that information in specified circumstances. Some of these exemptions are subject to a public interest test. These exemptions are known as qualified exemptions. The public interest test is used to balance the public interest in openness against the public interest in favour of applying exemptions. Section 10(3) of the Act allows us to exceed the 20 working day response target where reasonably necessary to consider the public interest test fully. This is subject to us telling applicants when we expect to conclude our deliberations and provide a full response.
We are currently assessing the public interest in saying whether or not we hold the information you have requested, and should we do so, in providing the information you have requested. We are doing so under the exemptions contained in Sections 23(5) and 24(2) (national security), 35(3) (formulation of government policy, 31(3) (prevention and detection of crime) and 43(3) (prejudice to commercial interests) of the Freedom of Information Act.
This letter should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you have requested exists or does not exist.
Richard McMillan left an annotation (18 November 2008)
It's now been over 60 working days since the original request - should this not be referred to the ICO?
Things to do with this request
Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
Becky Hogge only:
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Home Office only:
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Watching Them, Watching Us left an annotation (30 August 2008)
e.g. The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and the Interception of Communications Commissioner, the Rt. Hon. Sir Paul Kennedy (not an FOIA public body)
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