Room 405 [email protected] 70 Whitehall www.cabinet office.gov.uk London, SW1A 2AS Mr Navartne [email protected] FOI Reference: FOI322856 10/05/2016 Dear Mr Navartne I refer to your request where you asked: “1) kindly provide all details, of any complaint (including requests for advice) lodged against the Prime Minister David Cameron between 01 September 2015 and 31 December 2015. I am specifically interested in any correspondence sent to the Cabinet Secretary by Member of Parliament (MP) Jonathan Ashworth with regards to a potential breach of the Ministerial Code by the Prime Minister. 2) Please forward (to this whatdotheyknow website e-mail address) all letters, emails, memos, or any other material held in a structured and organised manner, relating to the complaint(s) mentioned above. State clearly the outcome of each complaint and provide a copy of the verbose account of the decision, including how the cabinet office (or the staff member responsible) arrived at the decision. (as to whether there was a breach or not) 3) What is the procedure if the Prime Minister was (is) found to have been in breach of the code. Is the matter passed to the independent advisor on Ministers' Interests for investigation, in the same way it would be if there was an allegation about a MINISTER. (I take it the Cabinet secretary would not be consulting the prime minister if there is an allegation ABOUT the PRIME MINISTER) 4) a) State clearly if details of complaints received FROM an MP complaining ABOUT the prime minister, or a minister are published online for public viewing. b) If not, the reasons (or notions) for not doing so. 5) Has there been any breaches of the ministerial code, since 01 January 2010 (breach reported date). Please give details of the breach, including a) the clause of the code breached b) description of the breach c) date of the breach d) name of the minister e) steps taken to investigate f) findings of the inquiry (please provide website links if the findings are published online) e) Outcome 6) Your website has a complaints procedure listed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/cabinet-office/about/complaints- procedure a) To whom does this procedure apply. The website states it applies to 'staff'. Please state clearly the roles performed by the staff to which this complaints procedure apply. 7) Can a member of the public lodge a complaint about a potential breach of the ministerial code: a) by the Prime Minister b) by a (government) Minister c) By a shadow Minister 8) what is the procedure for lodging such a complaint. Please give the post (position) of the person we (the public) should contact, their address, phone number, website details, email etc.” I must inform you that the Cabinet Office is unable to comply with your request. Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act relieves public authorities of the duty to comply with a request for information if the cost of dealing with it would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for central Government this is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it. The reason that your request exceeds the cost limit is that relevant information could be contained in very many files. Searching all those that might contain relevant information to determine whether the Cabinet Office holds any information relevant to your request will exceed the appropriate limit laid down in the regulations. If you wish, you may refine your request in order to bring the cost of determining whether the Cabinet Office holds relevant information, locating, retrieving and extracting it, below the appropriate limit. To refine your request for example, you may wish to focus on one part of it. If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the FOI team. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications. If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request or wish to request an internal review, you should write to: Helen Ewen Cabinet Office 70 Whitehall London SW1A 2AS email: [email protected] You should note that the Cabinet Office will not normally accept an application for internal review if it is received more than two months after the date that the reply was issued. If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by Cabinet Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF Yours sincerely FOI Team Cabinet Office .