COVID Recovery Team The Executive Office BT4 3SR Tel: (028) 9052 3704 E-mail: [email protected]

Mr. Tony Parker Your Ref: War Crimes

Mailto: request-709691- [email protected] Our Ref: FOI-2020-0114

Date: 09 February 2021

Dear Mr. Parker,

Freedom of Information Act (2000):

I refer to your request which we received on 30 November 2020 for information relating to COVID-19.

I apologise for the delay in responding. We are currently facing increased pressures due to Covid-19. This has led to a slower response time than we aim to achieve, however we have worked to keep any delay to a minimum. Thank you for your patience in this regard.

REQUEST Please provide the following recorded information. 1. All recorded information from the Executive Office to all MLA's and to the public that clearly states that the death rate in Northern for Covid 19 Is 0.07227777777777777% or the equivalent percentage of 1301 to the exact population of . 2. Please provide all recorded information of the names of all the non- government bodies and individuals that you have corresponded with in relation to the Covid 19 matter. 3. Please provide all recorded information of the names of all the non- government bodies and individuals that you have corresponded with that has had any influence on your policy decisions relating to Covid 19 b. Please state what influence they had or attempted to have on the making of Executive Office policy relating to the Covid 19 matter.

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4. Please state if the Executive Office policy and staff must comply with the Human Rights Act 1998. 5. Please state if the Executive Office policy and staff must comply with the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

I am writing to confirm that The Executive Office (TEO) has now completed its search for this information as outlined below:

With regards question 1, I am writing to inform you that we have searched our records and the information you requested is not held by TEO.

However, it is possible that The Department of Health (DoH) may hold some or all of the information you require. They can be contacted at:

DoH Departmental Information Manager FOI Unit DoH Annexe 3 Castle Buildings Stormont Belfast BT4 3SQ E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: 028 9052 2353

For questions 2 and 3, I can confirm that the Department holds information within the scope of your request. However, I am sorry to inform you that from our assessment of your request, it is clear that to answer the whole of your request would exceed the cost limit set by the Freedom of Information Act. Section 12 of the FOIA allows us to decline to answer FOIA requests when we estimate it would cost us more than £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether TEO holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

The reason Section 12 applies is because the breadth of the information you have requested is extremely wide and covers a 10-month period. Consequently the number of business units/individuals that would need to undertake a search and the volume of electronic files that would need to be identified and examined to ascertain whether they held information relevant to your request is extremely high.

Although we are not obliged to answer your request in full, we may be able to answer a refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example, narrowing the scope of your request away from “all departmental correspondence”, “correspondence” or “all correspondence” and towards more specific documents.

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Alternatively you may wish to consider identifying an even more specific time period or reducing the number/scope of your requests in some other way. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit or that any or all information identified would not subsequently be subject to exemption from disclosure under the terms of the FOIA.

In response to Question 4 of your request, The Executive Office is a public authority for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998.

In response to Question 5 of your request, I can confirm that the UK is a signatory to that Convention and that it was formally ratified by the UK on 23rd September 1957. It was given domestic effect via the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (legislation.gov.uk), which extends to Northern Ireland. S1 of that Act makes it an offence for a person to commit, aid, abet or procure the commission by any other person of a grave breach of (for present purposes) Article 147 of the specified Convention.

If you are unhappy with the level of service you have received in relation to our handling of this request, you may ask for an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter. You should contact:

Head of Executive and Central Advisory Division Room SD 24 Stormont Estate BELFAST BT4 3ST Email - [email protected]

In order to assist a thorough review, it would be helpful if you set out any particular grounds for complaint.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you then 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

The Information Commissioner will not investigate a complaint unless the internal review procedure outlined above has been completed.

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Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter, remembering to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely.

Maria Hannon

MARIA HANNON LOCAL INFORMATION MANAGER COVID RECOVERY TEAM

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