Avenue d’Auderg
Avenue d’Auderghem 10
Political Section
UK Representation to the EU
Avenue d’Auderghem 10
1040 Brussels
Belgium
Website: https://www.gov.uk
Margarida Silva
CEO
Rue d'Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels, Belgium
11 October 2017
Dear Ms. Silva
Your Freedom Of Information Request: 0681-17
Thank you for your request for information which we received on 4 July 2017. In your
request you asked for:
“ documents which contain the following information:
- the rules in place to screen and manage potential conflicts of interest in the previous
employment of incoming officials and post-employment for departing officials of the
Permanent Representation;
- procedures in place to assess and limit potential conflicts of interest in the previous
employment of incoming officials and post-employment for departing officials of the
Permanent Representation;
- the number of officials who have sought advice or approval for new roles after leaving the
Permanent Representation since January 2016 and information on their new roles”.
I have previously confirmed that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office does hold
information falling within the terms of your request.
The FOI Act 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 days to take a decision on where
the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by
8 November 2017. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will
keep you informed.
The specific exemptions which we are considering in relation to your request are section 24 -
National security and section 38 - Health and Safety.
If you are unhappy with the service you are receiving and wish to make a complaint, please
write to the FOI and DPA Team at Room K4.04, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH, or
by e-mail t
o xxxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx. Please note that you have 40 working days from the
date of this letter in which to submit a request for an internal review.
You can apply directly to the Information Commissioner. However, the Information
Commissioner will not normally make a decision unless you have first exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the FCO. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Political Section, UKRep
We keep and use information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to other UK
government departments and public authorities.
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