In the UK, there are three principle means of extracting information from Government departments, in this case the MoD.
The first is to simply read published materials, listen to debates and evidence sessions and absorb information that is sent.
The other two are submitting a Freedom of Information request and asking ones MP to ask for you.
The MoD gets them but joining the dots for requests that are duplicated across these two avenues must be difficult to administer…
Contents
FoI Request – Submitted on the 12th of January 2013
Dear Ministry of Defence,
I would like to know if the 120 mm anti-tank round CHARM 3 propellant charge Life Extension Program will entail the test firing of the CHARM 3 round at at either the Eskmeals VJ Battery
Firing Butt in Cumbria or the Dundrennan Range in Dumfries and Galloway.
Parliamentary Question - Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 18 January 2013, c964W)
Nick Harvey (North Devon, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Life Extension Programme that the CHARM-3 propellant charge is subject to will involve test firing at (a) the Eskmeals VJ Battery Firing Butt in Cumbria and (b) the Dundrennan Range in Dumfries and Galloway.
The Answers
It would make sense, given the question is basically the same, for coordinated answer.
The Parliamentary answer issued on the 18th was;
Philip Dunne (Ludlow, Conservative) A site for testing the propellant charge for the CHARM 3 Round has not yet been selected. A suitable trial site will be selected at the appropriate stage in the Life Extension Programme.
and the response to the FoI request
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Ministry of Defence does hold information that falls within scope of
your request. The information is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), because it is reasonably accessible to you by other means. This information is
already in the public domain and can be located in the House of Parliament’s Hansard records, Reference Number – 18 Jan 2013: Column 964W. For ease I have provided a
web link to this document below: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130118/text/130118w00
01.htm#13011846001558
The MoD gets a lot of stick but that seems pretty efficient to me.
Yes, quite efficient in one sense, but why do Government departments not just give the answer if it is simple, instead of directing the enquirer elsewhere? It is a bit like asking a policeman the time, only to be told that there is a jewellers across the road and you can go and look in the window there, even while the PC is examining his own watch. If the answer is long and complex, then it might be fair enough to refer the enquirer to some other place it has been published, but in most cases (since they have already done the work and know the answer) why generate more effort for the person who has asked the question? One of the strange things about British organisations is their invariable conviction that knowledge is something that should only be doled out in the smallest possible quantities, with the minimum detail, in the most unhelpful kind of way. You can see the same principle at work if you ask at a railway station for the exact reason why your train is late or has been cancelled.
I would argue that it is not just a British thing.
The answer in some parts is due to legal process. The MOD cannot tell someone, via FOI, more than they are willing to tell MPs in Parliament. Thus they will always try to make the answers broadly similar.
Without sounding too critical, but that is not a good FOI request (I used to deal with them for a living!) FOI is about asking for documents, what the requestor has done is asked a question. If you state it is FOI and force MOD to treat it as FOI, legally they can only say they do not have the documents. If it is just a question that can be answered as normal business, it gives them more scope to be helpful…
“…but why do Government departments not just give the answer if it is simple, instead of directing the enquirer elsewhere?”
Because the departments have limited resources for dealing with the substantial weight of legitimate FOI requests without being used as Google for folks who can’t be bothered spending an hour flicking through PDF files, Hansard, or .gov.uk sites looking for the answer. If they answered one lazy enquiry, they’d likely get many more from the same enquirer; instead, the proper response immediately informs and educates the enquirer as to what the system is for.