Ministerial Correspondence Unit

Selborne House

54 Victoria Street

London

SW1E 6QW

T 020 7210 8400

F 020 7210 0647

E general.queries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

www.justice.gov.uk

{our email address]

21st August 2008

Dear Sir/Madam,

Freedom of Information request

Thank you for your e-mail of 3 July in which you asked:

A. for the name and location of any 'prohibited places' declared under the Official Secrets Act 1911;

B. for any further categories of Prohibited Place defined in subsequent legislation;

C. about restrictions on the rights of entry under the Civil Aviation Act 1982; and

D. whether there is any other legislation which creates 'prohibited places' in the UK, including Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I can advise you that the Ministry of Justice does hold some of the information you request.

However, it will not be possible to provide you with this information within the appropriate limit set out in section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which is set at £600 for central Government. The limit represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days locating, retrieving, and extracting the information. Your request is therefore refused under section 12 (1) of the FOI Act.

If you were to refine your request, for example by specifying a narrower time frame, or listing which orders you are especially interested in, we would be happy to reconsider your request.

I should point out that some of the information you request is also covered by further exemptions, in particular section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, in that Orders made under the Official Secrets Act are accessible on the Office of Public Sector Information website (www.opsi.gov.uk) and/or the Statute Law Database (www.statutelaw.gov.uk).

In addition, some of the information you request falls within the area of responsibility of other Government Departments. The Communications Act 2003 is the responsibility of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Civil Aviation Act 2001 is the responsibility of the Department for Transport.

If you are unhappy with the way the Department has handled your request, you may ask for an internal review. Requests for internal reviews should be addressed to

Access Rights Unit,

Ministry of Justice,

6.17, Selborne House,

54 Victoria Street,

London,

SW1E 6QW.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office,

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire,

SK9 5AF.

Yours faithfully,

{name of civil servant]

Criminal Law Policy Unit



