Documents / Document
This MoD file, titled UFOs - Persistent Correspondence - Dr David Clarke, holds Dr David Clarke's Freedom of Information requests and emails to the Directorate of Air Staff from 2005 to 2008. Clarke asked for the DI55 report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defence Region and for Rendlesham papers. He also sought records about Nick Pope. Other items include an internal review that released redacted passages on plasmas, the MoD's statement that it had no report of the 2008 South Wales police helicopter sighting, and a 2009 disposal form.
“UFO Files”45 pages
The Information Commissioner's guidance on the DPA is clear: "Information which is about the home or family life of an individual, his or her personal finances, or consists of personal references, is likely to deserve protection. By contrast, information which is about someone acting in an official or work capacity should normally be provided on request unless there is some risk to the individual concerned." (FOIA Awareness Guidance No 1, pg 3, Information Commissioner). As Mr Pope is a self declared "TV personality and former head of the MoD's UFO Project" I submit that such risks are minimal or non-existent. Furthermore, on pg 4 of the FOIA guidance note the Commissioner states: "It is often believed that the [DPA] prevents the disclosure of any personal data without the consent of the person concerned. This is not true. The purpose of the [DPA] is to protect the private lives of individuals. Where information requested is about the people acting in a work or official capacity then it will normally be right to disclose." ## I submit that: *Mr Pope was undoubtedly "acting in a work or official capacity" whilst in Sec (AS)2a 1991-94 and that responsibility did not end in 1994 by virtue of the fact that he remained as a serving MoD officer during the period, in 1995-96, when his book was first published. *His personal views on UFOs and his conflict of opinion with his employers cannot be defined as "private" as his version of the events surrounding the publication of his book have been widely disseminated in interviews given and articles written by Mr Pope to the present day. *It must be in the public interest for documents relating to the MoD's internal deliberations on both Mr Pope's statements and on the contents of his book to be released, not least to provide the public with balance and context. At the moment all the public have is Mr Pope's version of the sequence of events leading to his "conversion" to UFO believer and the publication of his book. Mr Pope frequently articulates his version of this story and until recently he was frequently presented by the media as "the MoD's expert" on the subject, without official contradiction. Therefore, without the benefit of the official documentation relating to this period the public are unable to reach a balanced judgement about the accuracy of his stated version of the events surrounding the publication of his book. Once again, I submit it is undoubtedly in the public interest to release this information. Furthermore, it is my understanding that the manuscript of Mr Pope's first book was submitted to the MoD for vetting and was eventually approved by the Publication Clearance Branch (PCB) after changes had been made. I accept that the contents of the original MS and discussion relating to those changes rightly fall under Section 41 of the FOIA (Information provided in Confidence) and are rightly protected. However, that protection cannot be extended to cover specific matters which are already in the public domain by virtue of the fact that Mr Pope has discussed these matters publicly. For
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 160 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.