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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.
“DI55”38 pages
relevant exemption. This test has been applied and it has been decided that the balance of public interest lies in maintaining the exemption and therefore withholding disclosure. Although we appreciate that disclosure of this information would have provided more background information on the UAP report, disclosure would reveal details of a particular company who has had contracts with the DIS which, if disclosed, would be likely to prejudice current and future commercial relations between the company concerned and the Ministry of Defence. You will also notice that some minor details have been removed, these consist of office addresses, telephone numbers and unique job titles. This information is not considered relevant to the contents of the report and we believe its removal does not prejudice the understanding of the report. If you are unhappy with our decision to withhold this information, or you wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of this request, then you should contact the undersigned in the first instance. Should you remain dissatisfied, then you may apply for an internal review by contacting the Director of Information Exploitation, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail: Info-XD@mod.uk). If you are still unhappy following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. As requested, we have also reviewed the letter D/DIST/11/10 dated 4th December 2000 to see whether previously withheld information can now be released. As you will be aware, this document was released in response to your earlier FOI request concerning the DIS decision to no longer receive UFO reports. Paragraph 3 and a few words in paragraph 4 were removed because they were not relevant to that request. Given your subsequent FOI request for a copy of the UAP report and its release, we have reviewed this decision and decided that this information can now be released. The classification previously removed at the top and bottom of the letter can also now be revealed, but have been over-stamped to reflect the fact that the document has been downgraded. Please find enclosed a fresh copy of this document with this information revealed. The details of the author of the letter are still covered by FOIA Absolute exemption S.40 and therefore remain redacted. Finally, with regard to your email of 13 June 2006 in which you asked about UFO file releases at The National Archives, I should inform you that once files are transferred from the MOD it is for the TNA to manage their release. The last two collections TNA made of MOD records in March and May 2006 did not include any pieces which obviously contain UFO information, nor any for DEFE 24 where future such releases are anticipated. I understand that TNA will be holding a press event at the end of June when they will highlight some of the new releases. All newly released records should also appear in their catalogue around this time. Yours sincerely, Section 40
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.