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This Ministry of Defence file, released through The National Archives and published by The Black Vault, holds the MOD's 2002 handling of Dr David Clarke's requests for UFO documents under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. It includes the MOD's 9 December 2002 reply, which covered reports from 1976, 1980, 1993 and 1996 and charged £260. It also contains internal emails and file requisitions, plus Foreign Office and United Nations papers from 1978 on Grenada's proposal for UFO research.
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a therefore, although the 30 year point remains significant for two reasons: first, the obligation on_ 9 departments to transfer records to the PRO before they reach 30 years old remains (Public Records Act s 3(4)) and second, some exemptions cease to apply after 30 years (FOIA s 63(1)). The FOI Act requires the PRO, as the authority holding the records, to respond to requests for information relating to closed records by reviewing them to determine whether an exemption applies. This is done in consultation with the department. If it is decided that an exemption applies, and the exemption is one to which the public interest test applies, the department then considers the public interest in disclosing the exempt information, in consultation with the Lord Chancellor. These procedures are set out at s 66 ofthe. FOI Act, supported by s 15 which requires the PRO to copy a request to the department when a public interest decision must be made. One of the exemptions relates to 'information intended for future publication'. This might be relevant to files that are awaiting release, but the exemption says that withholding the information until the intended publication date would have to be 'reasonable in all the circumstances'. You might like to note that this exemption cannot be claimed by the PRO if the records are over 3 0 years old (s 64(1)). I hope this summary has helped to explain the position. If you want to know more about what the Freedom oflnformation Act says, you might like to look at the Explanatory Notes published by HMSO (ISBN 010 563 600 2). I will write to you again regarding the remaining papers mentioned at paragraph 2 above, as soon as possible. Yours sincerely,
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 492 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.