date: Wed Sep  9 09:26:25 2009
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: RE: Freedom Of Information
to: "Thorne, Peter (Climate Research)" <peter.thorne@metoffice.gov.uk>

    Peter,
       Good luck with John and hopefully you'll get to see him. If you do and he wants to talk
   to me, then arrange a time to call him or vice versa - at home or here. John probably won't
   want anything via email.
      I'm here today ad tomorrow, but in London for a UKCP09 meeting tomorrow.
      I'm in Geneva on Mon-Weds next week at an IPCC D&A meeting. Peter Stott will likely be
   in Geneva.
    Cheers
    Phil
   At 09:12 09/09/2009, you wrote:

     Sounds like a whole barrel of laughs. I hope to have booked John at 11 today but taht is
     hopee rather than expectation. At least his diary said he was free then ...! We've also
     had something through parlimentary channels from a MP in Bromsgrove I think. It was
     whilst I was off sick. I am chasing that down and will advise if it adds anything new to
     the mix.

     --
     Peter Thorne, Climate Research scientist
     Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB.
     tel. +44 1392 886552  fax. +44 1392 885681
     [1]http://www.hadobs.org
       ___________________________________________________________________________________

     From: Phil Jones [[2]mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk]
     Sent: 09 September 2009 09:04
     To: Thorne, Peter (Climate Research)
     Subject: FW: Freedom Of Information
      Peter,
         Here's an email from your Press Officer to ours about a letter from a Stuart Harmon.
      I modified the intended reply a little and this went back to Dave Britton a few days
     ago via our press officer.
      I said the bit about records not being kept should be removed.  Our FOI person has
     ruled that if we get an FOI request from Harmon we can treat it as vexatious!  I'm
     surprised that your press office have bothered to reply to it.
         Also attaching another thing I got for amusement. This one was sent to the President
     of the AGU (Tim Grove) and also to Alan Robock. Alan persuaded Tim to ignore it and gave
     him some of the background. I wasn't aware that Alan was so up to speed with all this -
     good that he was. The funny thing is that the person in Cornwall sent me a hard copy
     which arrived last week. He sent me a copy plus the letter he's sent to the Pope. This
     letter is up in the CRU coffee room. The attachments are amazingly complex and
     ridiculous.
        McIntyre has appealed here and that is going through the process. Two others have
     appealed as well - academics at Anglia Ruskin University and one at Oxford. I have been
     meaning to check up on the Oxford one, and may send it on.
      Cheers
      Phil


     From: "Dunford Simon Mr (MAC)" <S.Dunford@uea.ac.uk>
     To: "Jones Philip Prof (ENV)" <P.Jones@uea.ac.uk>
     CC: "Gook Susan Mrs (MAC)" <S.Gook@uea.ac.uk>,
             "Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)"
             <David.Palmer@uea.ac.uk>
     Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 15:45:51 +0100
     Subject: FW: Freedom Of Information
     Thread-Topic: Freedom Of Information
     Thread-Index: AcocbS5xHTGcjyXjTgefRcdwsOHSfAOnaKpAAAHNl8A=
     Accept-Language: en-US, en-GB
     X-MS-Has-Attach: yes
     X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
     acceptlanguage: en-US, en-GB
     X-OriginalArrivalTime: 01 Sep 2009 14:45:48.0250 (UTC) FILETIME=[E4DBDBA0:01CA2B12]
     Hi Phil

     The Met Office would like our comments about a reply they plan to send to Stuart Harmon
     - see below. Could you let me know asap if you are happy with it. I wonder if the line
     about records not being kept is unnecessary? And I notice they are not saying that we
     hope to provide some of the data in the future.

     I attach the agreed UEA statement as a reference.

     Over to you... (they're in a hurry by the way).

     Cheers,

     Simon

     Simon Dunford, Press Officer,
     University of East Anglia,
     Norwich, NR4 7TJ.
     Tel:+44 (0)1603 592203
     [3]www.uea.ac.uk/comm
     A PREMIER RESEARCH AND TEACHING UNIVERSITY
     2009 "What Uni" Student Choice Award winner and 2nd amongst mainstream English
     universities in the National Student Survey
     World top 200, European top 100, UK top 30 (Times League Table 2010)
     Norwich: fourth highest cited UK city for science, thanks to the University and our
     Norwich Research Park partners.
       ___________________________________________________________________________________

     From: Britton, Dave [ [4]mailto:Dave.Britton@metoffice.gov.uk]
     Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 3:18 PM
     To: Dunford Simon Mr (MAC); Richards, Chris
     Subject: RE: Freedom Of Information
     Simon, Chris

     Please see the email below that I plan to send the Stuart Harmon.  Do you have any
     issues/clarifications.

     A quick response on this would be very much appreciated.

     Cheers
     Dave
       ___________________________________________________________________________________


     Stuart,

     Firsty,  I am sorry that I have not responded sooner.  Unfortunately I have been away
     from the office for the last 3 weeks or so.

     The Met Office and CRU are not in a position to release this data under FOI or otherwise
     as we have obtained some of the data from scientists and institutions on the
     understanding that this station data will be be publicly released, mainly as some of the
     data has a commercial value.  We are not in a position to clarify which data sets have
     been provided under such terms and which have not as records were not kept. As a result
     we cannot release the data where we have no authority to do so and any such release of
     data could damage relationships with data providers

     The Met Office uses the data solely and expressly to create a gridded product that we
     distribute without condition.

     I hope this helps

     Dave


     From: STUART HARMON <stuart.harmon@btinternet.com>
     To: dave.britton@metoffice.gov.uk; dave.britton@metoffice.gov.uk
     Sent: Tuesday, 28 July, 2009 11:51:56 PM
     Subject: Freedom Of Information
     Dear Mr Britton

     I am preparing an article on the freedom of information act and would request your
     comments on why the Met Office is unwilling to release temperature data and methodology.

     Provided to you is a link to Mr McIntyres web site
     [5]http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=6623.

     The article I am proposing is to be based on the unintended consequences of abusing  the
     freedom of information act to prevent the release of information.

     In summary I pose to posit the following:-

     1 The reason for not releasing information is to hide information which will be
     embarrassing. I will use the MP's expenses to illustrate.

     2 Another reason is because the organisation is incompetent.

     3 The  organisation is politicised and manipulates data to create an intended result.

     Should the organisation subsequently be guilty of any of the above the unintended
     consequence of not releasing data is that the organisation will bring British science
     into disrepute. Which is not in the national interest.

     Best regards


     Stuart Harmon



     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------


   Prof. Phil Jones
   Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
   School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

