Information relating to HO 498/184, HO 498/2013 & NK 68/47

Request

This request concerns the following three public records listed in The National Archives’ catalogue:

1. HO 498/184 — European Community: Trevi Working Group II; meetings of the expert sub-group on the interception of communications
2. HO 498/201 — Guidelines on the use of equipment in police surveillance: working group meetings and reports
3. NK 68/47 — Cabinet Office study on encryption and law enforcement

I am not requesting the substantive contents of these records. I am requesting recorded information about their catalogue status, access status, custody, transfer/retention status, orderability and attempted production for reader access.

For each of the three records above, please provide the following recorded information:

1. whether the record has been transferred to and is currently in the custody of The National Archives and, if so, the date on which it was transferred to The National Archives;
2. if the record is not currently in the custody of The National Archives, whether it was ever transferred to The National Archives and later recalled, retrieved, temporarily returned, or otherwise removed from TNA custody by or on behalf of the responsible government department, and, if so, the date(s) of any such transfer, recall, retrieval, temporary return, or removal;
3. the current recorded status of the record on TNA systems, including any recorded indication that the record is open, closed, retained, redacted, unavailable, not transferred, mislocated, awaiting transfer, or otherwise not available for reader production; and
4. any correspondence or communications between TNA and the responsible government department dated from 1 January 2023 to the date of this request concerning the review, release, transfer, custody, recall, retrieval, temporary return, closure or retention of the record.

Outcome

Some information provided.

Response

I can confirm that The National Archives holds information relevant to your request. We are pleased to be able to provide some of this information to you.

We are unable to provide you with some of the information you have requested because it is covered by the exemption at section 40 of the FOI Act. Some of the information is also covered by the exemption at section 23 of the FOI Act. For further information about why these exemptions have been applied, please see the explanatory annex at the end of this letter.

HO 498/184 — European Community: Trevi Working Group II; meetings of the expert sub-group on the interception of communications

1. This record has not been transferred to The National Archives.
2. This record has never been transferred to The National Archives.
3. This record is retained by a government department.
4. Relevant redacted documents (PDFs and CSVs) are available upon request: 20230524 HO Delivery Form and HO 498 (161-520) 20230518 Transfer Summary. To note, retention under the RI 146 (the Security & Intelligence Instrument) does not require The National Archives' involvement, so there is no retention application or schedule approval.

HO 498/201 — Guidelines on the use of equipment in police surveillance: working group meetings and reports

1. This record has not been transferred to The National Archives.
2. This record has never been transferred to The National Archives.
3. This record is retained by a government department.
4. Relevant redacted documents (PDFs and CSVs) are available upon request: 20230524 HO Delivery Form and HO 498 (161-520) 20230518 Transfer Summary. To note, retention under the RI 146 (the Security & Intelligence Instrument) does not require The National Archives' involvement, so there is no retention application or schedule approval.

NK 68/47 — Cabinet Office study on encryption and law enforcement

1. This record has not been transferred to The National Archives.
2. This record has never been transferred to The National Archives.
3. This record is retained by a government department.
4. Relevant redacted documents (PDFs and CSVs) are available upon request: DSIT Transfer Form, NK 68 Transfer summary, DSIT retention application, RI 161 Retention with approval, Copy of Retention Application (DSIT), Email - FOI 181, FOI 182, FOI 183, FOI 184 & RI 161 Approved, and Email - FW Department for Science Innovation and Technology DSIT Advisory Council.

To request copies of any of these documents please email RMDclosedrecordsrequests@nationalarchives.gov.uk

Annexe

Exemptions applied

Section 40(2): Personal Information where the applicant is not the data subject

Section 40 exempts personal information about a ‘third party’ (someone other than the requester), if revealing it would breach the terms of Data Protection Legislation. Data Protection Legislation prevents personal information from release if it would be unfair or at odds with the reason why it was collected, or where the subject had officially served notice that releasing it would cause them damage or distress.

Personal information must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner as set out by Art. 5 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

In this case the exemption applies because the requested material contains information which would identify junior members of staff.

Publishing the names and contact details of junior members of staff is considered an unfair use of personal data. Junior members of staff would have no expectation that information about their positions would be made available in the public domain; to do so would be unfair and contravene the first data protection principle of the Data Protection Act.

As such, the names, positions and contact details of junior officials are withheld under section 40 (2) of the FOI Act.

Further guidance about the publication of junior staff names can be found on the ICO website.

Section 23: Security bodies

Section 23(1) exempts information held by a public authority from disclosure if it was provided to that public authority by the bodies dealing with security matters, or if that information relates to those bodies.

Section 23(1) is an absolute exemption when it applies to information which is not contained within a historical archival record, which means that it is not subject to the public interest test set out in section 2(2) of FOIA.

Section 23(1) provides an exemption for information if it was directly or indirectly supplied to a public authority by, or relates to, any of the bodies specified in subsection (3). We have applied the section 23(1) exemption to a very small amount of information in the file.

To the extent that section 23(1) is engaged, we have considered whether the balance of the public interest would favour releasing or withholding this information. We have concluded that this exemption applies as the information would need to be protected in order to ensure we do not jeopardise any future operations of our current security bodies and therefore allow them to continue to be effective in protecting the national security of the United Kingdom.

It is in the public interest that our security bodies can operate effectively in the interests of the United Kingdom, without disclosing information that may assist those determined to undermine the security of the United Kingdom and its citizens.

Further guidance about this exemption can be found on the ICO website.