17/01/2025
Dear Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office,
Regarding the Hertfordshire police review of the Bermuda police Service (BPS),
https://www.royalgazette.com/crime/news/…
I ask to be provided:
1. The exchanges with Rena Lalgie, the Governor and the Governor’s office
2. The exchanges with the BPS
The FCDO responded:
We received your request on 17th January. It has been assigned a unique reference number FOI2025/01497. We aim to respond by 14th February.
We have started to consider your request, however we require further
information before we are able to proceed.
29/01/2025 the FCDO sought clarification:
I would be grateful if you could please provide some further detail about exactly who or which organisation the exchanges regarding the review of the Bermuda Police Service that you asked about are between? This would greatly help FCDO to identify the correct information.
As you will appreciate the statutory timescale for our response to your request will not commence until we are supplied with the further information which we require.
06/02/2025, the response to the above request:
I am at a loss to understand what further detail you believe I can provide. I am seeking your information about a review, undertaken by a UK constabulary. I anticipate you will have had exchanges with the constabulary and:
1. The exchanges with Rena Lalgie, the Governor and the Governor’s office
2. The exchanges with the BPS
what more do you require?
Note: no response was received to the above question. No clarification was required. It appears patently obvious what was being asked for. This appears to be an abuse of the FoI Act, conduct also employed by Herts Police about the subject – read more here.
07/03/2025 the FCDO wrote:
The date that the response is due for your request, FOI2025/01497, has been changed to 3rd April
I apologise for the need to extend the deadline of your request. However, more time is required to review information in relation to your request.
We are writing to confirm that the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) does hold information relevant to your request. The FOIA (2000) obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no later than 20 working days after receiving your request.
However, when a qualified exemption applies to the information and the public interest test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as is reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make all decisions within 20 working days, including in cases where we need to consider where the public interest lies in respect of a request for exempt information.
In this case, however, we have not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. In your case we estimate that it will take an additional 20 working days to take a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to issue a full response by 3 April.
The specific FOIA (2000) exemptions which apply in relation to the extension of your request are: S27 International relations
04/04/2025 to the FCDO:
Your extended due date has passed. When am i to receive the information?
Note: the failure to respond was conveyed by way of complaint to the FCDO.
07/04/2025, the ICO wrote:
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
Your complaint about: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Their reference: FOI2025/01497
Our reference: IC-375010-R2N6
Thank you for your complaint about the time the above public authority has taken to carry out its public interest test.
Where a public authority requires any additional time to consider the public interest, it must still respond to your request within 20 working days. It must state the exemption it is considering and include an estimate of how long the public interest test will take.
Public authorities should aim to respond fully to all requests within 20 working days, but for requests where the public interest test considerations are complex it may be reasonable to take up to 40 working days in total.
I have written to the public authority and asked it to respond to you within 10 working days.
07/04/2024 to the ICO
Thank you for your letter of today’s date.
My complaint was not specifically about the time the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has taken to carry out its public interest test but rather about what appears to be an abuse, of gaming the Act.
17/01/2025, I made the request
29/01/2025, the FCDO sought clarification
06/02/2025, bemused, I asked what was unclear about my request
Clearly there was nothing vague about the request as the FCDO ignored my question.
07/03/2025, the FCDO wrote of a need to review the information they hold. It therefore follows:
- They need no clarification – so why was this sought?
- 35 working days had passed since my request
By 07/03/2025 the FCDO had identified information but were ‘yet to make a decision’. Given the FCDO’s conduct regarding ‘clarification’; I can place little faith in the ir statements.
I note, for requests where the public interest test considerations are complex it may be reasonable to take up to 40 working days in total.
The FCDO appear to believe that where a qualified exemption exists the Act automatically allows for a longer response, that they can engage a 20 working day extension.
Your response suggests this only applies to ‘complex’ consideration. The FCDO have made no reference to their consideration being complex.
The FCDO have had a further 20 working days to consider the matter. Allowing for the MAXIMUM 40 working days, this was reached 14/03/2025.
03/04/2025, I was to be in possession of the decision – this is 55 working days after my original request, a response to which was due after 20 working days
The ICO has provided the FCDO a further 10 working days.
I trust my original complaint regarding tardiness will be upheld and action taken. I anticipate the FCDO will be asked to explain ‘clarification’ and ‘complexity’ in turn, the explain their delay beyond 20 working days.