Reference: 1222572 Julia Snape Information Rights [email protected] 20 May 2021 Freedom of Information: Right to know request Thank you for your request for information held by Ofcom about Sir Nick Clegg, Vice President of Global Affairs at Facebook. We received this request on 24 March 2021 and have considered it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the FOI Act’). We wrote to you on 23 April 2021 to say we needed more time to consider your request because the information requested was being considered under one of the FOI Act exemptions to which a public interest test applies. We have now concluded our consideration. You asked for: 1. “All emails that were sent / received from 'Nicholas Clegg', 'Nick Clegg', 'Clegg', 'Sir Nicholas Clegg', 'Sir Nick Clegg', '[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>', '[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>' or emails in your system that mention any of these terms. 2. Records of meetings, notes or minutes of those meetings and documents prepared for meetings with Nick / Nicholas Clegg 3. Phone logs of calls with Nick / Nicholas Clegg The time period for these three requests is October 1st 2018 to the date this request was received. For all three requests I would ask that you limit it to these people: Dame Melanie Dawes, chief exec, and her predecessor Lord Burns / Terence Burns Martin Ballantyne, Ofcom's General Counsel and Legal Group Director. Tony Close, former director of content standards, and the current holder of the post, Alison Marsden.” Background Before responding to your request, it may be helpful to clarify some relevant information about the individuals mentioned in your email: • Lord Terry Burns was Chair of Ofcom (rather than the Chief Executive) until the end of December 2020. We have searched our records until that date. • Tony Close left Ofcom in April 2020 and for the purposes of data protection and good records management, we have a policy to permanently delete all Outlook accounts 6 Page 1 of 8 months after any colleagues leave Ofcom. We therefore do not hold any relevant records and accordingly, have not referred to this aspect of your request below. • Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, joined Ofcom on 2 March 2020. We have searched our records from that date. In relation to item 3) of your request, I confirm that we do not hold the information requested as our systems do not record phone calls apart from those received into our Contact Centre. We have therefore not referred to this aspect of your request below. Ofcom is to be the regulator for online harms in the UK. We have therefore begun work to prepare for that role. As part of that exercise Ofcom’s Chief Executive has had a number of meetings with various stakeholders, including Sir Nick Clegg in his capacity as VP of Global Affairs at Facebook. The meetings with Sir Nick Clegg took place on 16 April 2020 and 3 February 2021. These meetings provided an initial basis for Ofcom to understand Facebook’s broad perspective on various areas relevant to online harms. We expect a continuing engagement with Facebook and other relevant stakeholders in relation to Ofcom’s current and future work relating to online harms. Our response We have now conducted searches for information that Ofcom holds within the scope of your request and have set out our response below by reference to the relevant individuals, subject to the above clarifications. Although you have requested emails that refer to “Nick Clegg”, we note that this search retrieves a broad range of information that is not specifically relevant to Nick Clegg. We have therefore narrowed our search to emails that are specifically relevant to Nick Clegg in his capacity as VP of Global Affairs at Facebook. Further, where an email contains a reference to Nick Clegg but otherwise contains content entirely unconnected with him, we have assumed that the broader content of the email is not within the scope of the request. We also note that our search has retrieved a number of emails in which Nick Clegg is referenced in the context of Ofcom colleagues sharing news articles as part of general discussion in connection with Ofcom’s preparation for its forthcoming duties in relation to Online Harms. This includes the following set of news articles: More Control and Context in News Feed (Facebook Newsroom), You and the Algorithm: It Takes Two to Tango (Nick Clegg, Medium); Referring Former President Trump’s Suspension From Facebook to the Oversight Board (Facebook Newsroom); Facebook's Nick Clegg: The idea that Europe should ban companies from collecting users' personal data is a serious miscalculation (Business Insider). In relation to Alison Marsden, we confirm that Ofcom does not hold any information within the scope of items 1) or 2) of your request. In relation to Martin Ballantyne, we do not hold any emails that were sent/received by Martin Ballantyne to/from ‘Nick Clegg’ or similar terms set out in item 1) of your request, or information about meetings within the scope of item 2) of your request. In relation to Lord Terry Burns, we do not hold any information about meetings within the scope of item 1) of your request. However, we do hold an email within the scope of item 2) of your request Page 2 of 8 that includes an overview of the meeting between Dame Melanie Dawes and Nick Clegg in April 2020. In relation to Dame Melanie Dawes, we do hold some further information that falls within scope of items 1) and 2) of your request. The emails that we hold in the inboxes of Dame Melanie Dawes and Lord Terry Burns fall into the following categories: • We hold emails between Dame Melanie and Nick Clegg organising the meetings and following up on points raised during those discussions. We also hold internal emails in which Dame Melanie was briefed for her meetings with Nick Clegg, and in which she provides colleagues with an overview of what was discussed in these meetings. We also hold an internal email briefing Dame Melanie for a meeting with another organisation that includes a brief reference to Nick Clegg. We are unable to disclose the relevant content of these emails, as we consider they are exempt under section 44 of the FOI Act which exempts the disclosure of information which is prohibited by another enactment. In this case, the other enactment that prohibits the disclosure of this information is section 393 of the Communications Act 2003, which prohibits Ofcom from disclosing information relating to a particular business which it has obtained in the course of exercising our powers, unless we have the consent of that business or one of the statutory gateways to disclosure is met. In the circumstances of this case, none of the gateways to disclosure are engaged. Section 44 of the FOI Act is an absolute exemption and is not subject to a public interest test. • We hold internal emails between Dame Melanie and her office in relation to the scheduling of meetings with Nick Clegg and other stakeholders, and internal updates referring to upcoming stakeholder meetings, including with Nick Clegg. We also hold an internally prepared summary of a DCMS Sub-Committee on Online Harms and Disinformation session. We are unable to disclose these emails, as we consider they are exempt from disclosure under section 36(2)(b) of the FOI Act. Section 36 is a qualified exemption, which means that Ofcom is required to consider whether or not the public interest in disclosing the information you have requested outweighs the public interest in withholding the information. In this case, we consider that the public interest favours withholding the information for the reasons set out in Annex B to this letter. In Annex A of this letter, the qualified person for Ofcom – the Corporation Secretary – has confirmed that this exemption applies. • Some of the emails captured by the request also contain personal information about a number of Ofcom colleagues and third parties. We consider that this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOI Act, which provides that personal information about persons other than the requester is exempt where its disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Section 40 is an absolute exemption under the Act and does not require a public interest test. Page 3 of 8 I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further queries, then please send them to [email protected] quoting the reference number above in any future communications. Yours sincerely, Julia Snape Page 4 of 8 Annex A Freedom of Information: Right to know request Section 36 exemption Some of the information you requested is being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act). I am a "qualified person" as referred to section 36(2) of the Act and duly authorised by a Minister of the Crown for the purposes of that section. In my reasonable opinion, disclosure of the information requested would prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. In applying this exemption, I have had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosing the information. I have set out in Annex B the exemption in full, as well as the factors I considered when deciding where the public interest lay in relation to the information concerned. If you have any queries about this letter, please contact [email protected].