Guy Shrubsole asked DEFRA some questions – see here. They redacted some information on apparently scientific reports they had received. I asked them some questions about that. They have replied as follow.
I do have some queries and some grounds for complaint. This letter could be summed up in two words and it doesn’t take 20 working days to send a V-sign.
[registration_form]
My experience (as a slightly accidental administrator of a department’s FoI practices) is that you can’t claim this exception if you can’t say with at least some clarity when the information is going to be published and show that it is reasonable to withold it in the meantime. The long version of that is here: https://bit.ly/39b61la . I’d certainly say it was worth asking for an internal review.
Alan – thanks
I think this is candalous. That we the public in this case are not allowed to know what scientific references Nick Downshire is referring to, perhaps Mark should write and ask him. In the mean time I would complain.