Directorate Air StatT
Ministry of Defence
Metropole Building
Northumberland Avenue
London WClN SBP
Your ref D/DAS/64/3/11
11 November 2002
Dr David Clarke '
.i.~,··--; ::• ,.
Thank you for your letter of 31 October following my request for copies ofUFO-related
documents. I'm grateful once again for the detailed responses to my questions, and for
the breakdown of the costs involved in supplying the documents I requested. Therefore,
please proceed with my application on the basis of the quote you provided in your earlier
letter of 16 September 2002. Please advise me if the total is likely to exceed the figure
you have quoted (£285) so that I may decide if I wish the work to continue.
With reference to your comments in reply to my point (2) concerning the briefing notes
prepared for the House of Lords UFO debate. Yes, I wish to pursue my request for copies
of papers contained in the General Parliamentary Correspondence file covering 1978
(MoD ref D/DS8/75/3 Part A) to which you refer and would be grateful if you could
process this request as part of my overall application above. In addition, if additional
papers relating to briefings for the 1978 House of Lords debate are located by the other
branches you mentioned, I wish to obtain copies of these under the same application.
_ ___cF_i----;nally, I wonder if you are able to answer a more general question with regard to the
!pl4lttlftte,omu'1g Freedom of Information Act. I understand that from January 2005 the
·ILIIDHrt111ot111" '30 year rule' will be effectively abolished, and that in addition the FOIA is
retrospective in terms of documents currently awaiting release at the Public Record
Office. How, in practice, will this alter the current arrangements with regard to
applications - such as the one I am currently making - for access to UFO files currently
'closed' under the 30 year rule?
Thank you for your attention to my requests.
Yours sincerely,