Questions that need answers

Further to yesterday's post about the prison smoking case, I can reveal an interesting response to a Freedom of Information request on a related issue.

On November 30, the day after I published a post about Deborah Arnott and the hitherto unknown national smoke free prisons project board, I emailed the Ministry of Justice as follows:

Dear Sirs,

In a response to a written question tabled by Philip Davies MP and answered on 28 November 2017, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation Mr Sam Gyimah MP replied:

"There have been no representations received from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) on the banning of the use of tobacco on the prison estate.

"The Director of ASH, Deborah Arnott is a member of the national smoke free prisons project board and is informed of the progress of the roll out."

1. Please provide a list of all members of the national smoke free prisons project board.

2. When was the national smoke free prisons project board set up?

3. How many times has the board met since it was set up?

4. Please provide the name of the chair.

5. How is the national smoke free prisons project board funded?

6. Are minutes of board meetings available to the public? Can they be accessed online? Alternatively, please provide a copy of the minutes of all meetings of the national smoke free prisons project board.

7. Please provide copies of all correspondence between the Director of ASH, Deborah Arnott, and the Ministry of Justice on the subject of prison smoking bans between 1st January 2014 and 30th November 2017.

Two days ago I received a response from Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service via the Ministry of Justice and to say I was staggered is an understatement.

Incredibly they have declined to answer any of my questions, citing the "cost limit". An edited version of their reply reads:

I am unable to confirm if the MoJ holds the information you have requested within the cost limit. Section 12(2) of the FOIA means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information.

In this instance to determine if all of the information requested is held we would be required to search a large number of electronic and paper records and collate and analyse them to produce the information you require, which would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with your request.

Now, I get that Q7 ('Please provide copies of all correspondence between the Director of ASH, Deborah Arnott, and the Ministry of Justice on the subject of prison smoking bans between 1st January 2014 and 30th November 2017') may have been a bit ambitious, but how long can it take to answer the other questions.

Let me remind you what they were:

1. Please provide a list of all members of the national smoke free prisons project board.
2. When was the national smoke free prisons project board set up?
3. How many times has the board met since it was set up?
4. Please provide the name of the chair.
5. How is the national smoke free prisons project board funded?
6. Are minutes of board meetings available to the public? Can they be accessed online? Alternatively, please provide a copy of the minutes of all meetings of the national smoke free prisons project board.

Are they seriously telling us they can't answer simple questions like that without searching a "large number of electronic and paper records", thereby exceeding "the cost limit".

Clearly they are using Q7 as an excuse not to answer questions 1-6, which begs the question, why?

According to the MoJ letter:

If you are not satisfied with this response you have the right to request an internal review by responding in writing within two months of the date of this response.

Not satisfied? Ye gods. Not only will we request an internal review I intend to take this up with Sam Gyimah himself.

ASH is a taxpayer-funded lobby group. Their CEO, according to Gyimah, is on the board of something called the "national smoke free prisons project", a mysterious and previously anonymous group no-one had ever heard of.

It's so shadowy the MoJ can't even tell us when it was set up, who else – apart from Deborah Arnott – is on the board, how many times it has met and who funds it. (Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if it actually exists.)

If the MoJ think they can fob us off with their feeble response they really don't know us, do they?

Comments

[Jay]

Go for it, Simon. When it suits them they tend to forget that they're accountable to us.

[Pat Nurse]

They cannot tell you. It doesn't exist. If this is not the case, your simple questions would be answered.

[Norman Brand]

Congratulations Simon. Get your teeth into it. A ministerial reply like that would be unacceptable in any context.

[Misty]

Cheeky devils! I wonder how many times they've trotted out that standard little refusal to FOI requests in the past. Loads, I'll bet! Definitely request the internal review and, if that doesn't succeed, re-submit the entire request again, but just without the last question which must, surely, be the only one which could conceivably take them over the time-limit. Then they'll have to give you an answer! But I agree with Pat - I suspect that it doesn't actually exist, and the time taken to answer your questions would come from the fact that they'd be looking through all their documents for something that isn't there!