Dear Defra
I am complaining about your response to a FoI request RFI 7667 on two grounds: the time taken to reply and the answer that I received.
- The time taken to reply. Your reply was short and contained no information that you needed to spend lots of time collecting and yet you took 35 working days to reply. This is unacceptably long and represents non-communication with the public and taxpayer rather than open government which the Act intended.
- The reply. As a government department you should be open with the public on environmental matters. There is no matter of ‘international relations’ at stake here. It is a simple matter where a UK wildlife ngo has complained about the UK government’s environmental delivery. The Government should be happy to publicise its defence and to celebrate its achievements in this area. The fact that after nearly three years no such information is available suggests that 1) Defra is ashamed of its record and 2) Defra is prevaricating so that the facts will not emerge. It is unacceptable that the public remains uninformed of this matter after all this time.
Keep going Mark. The truth will out. It seems the current tactic of those in charge seems to be to try and retire before the stink escapes.