020 38927490 Info@thebureauinvestigates.com www.tbij.com Thursday 12 February 2020 Ms Eirian Walsh Atkins Cabinet Office 70 Whitehall London SW1A 2AS Dear Ms Atkins, We are requesting an internal review of the decision not to release correspondence between Number 10 and the secretariat for the Intelligence and Security Committee between 17 October 2019 and 31 December 2019 (FOI reference: FOI329443). The Bureau believes that there is overwhelming public interest in the release of this information. The decision to deem this request as “vexatious” – an exemption typically used for repeat and abusive requesters – denies the press and the public its ability to hold the government to account. This was not a “vexatious” request – it was the first request I had put to the Cabinet Office for the The Bureau and the first time that the The Bureau had FOIed on the Russia report. The Bureau is not a “vexatious” organisation. It works in the public interest to reveal vital information that contributes to discourse and debate, a role the press plays in any democracy and there is huge public interest in revealing why the release of the Russia report was stopped. Number 10 blocked the publication of the Russia report ahead of the general election in December, meaning the public could not cast its vote in full knowledge of who may have influenced it. Number 10 has now blocked the release of information that may shed light on the justification for this decision. It is part of a concerning trend for this government, which appears to want to avoid proper scrutiny by the press and the public. The Cabinet Office rejected The Bureau’s request on the grounds that to “comply with this proposal would place a disproportionate burden on the department’s resources”. However, the Cabinet Office did not provide The Bureau with any estimate of how much time it would take to gather and prepare the information or any indication of whether a request with a shorter timeframe would be successful. The Cabinet Office said “the amount of information that is likely to be in the scope, and the degree of sensitivity of a significant proportion of that information is likely to be very high”. Registered address: 6 Hamilton Close, London NW8 8QY Company number: 7084305 VAT number: 997 339 648 It appears that there has been no proper assessment of the actual burden this request would place on resources, with its rejection based on assumptions. We have a concern that the Cabinet Office is misusing section 14 of FOIA to wrongly refuse a request that would not have exceeded the usual cost of compliance limit under section 12. The Cabinet Office response also notes “the forthcoming general election”, presumably a reference to the election that took place in December. It appears this is a boilerplate response to deny the public any ability to scrutinise the events leading up to, and information surrounding, the decision by Number 10 to block the publication of the Russia report. We ask you to expedite this request for an internal review. If you need any further clarification please contact me. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Ben Stockton Reporter, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism