On 14th January I put in a Freedom of Information Request to Number 10 Downing Street asking for minutes to be provided of the supposed meeting held in the Downing Street garden on 20th May 2020.
Today I received a reply from Number 10 stating that no minutes of the meeting have been found in the archives.
The letter states, however, that 'minutes do not have to be taken for every meeting that is held in the Civil Service.'
The letter was signed by Nicholas Howard, David Cameron's former assistant private secretary. I am unsure of his present position as he doesn't reveal it.
It referred me to Section 12 of the Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers.
Having checked this, Section 12 states this under 'Events which do not need to be recorded':
'In some instances meetings will be purely informal or of a social nature [sic] and no record needs to be created.'
There is nothing on the subsequent list of these meetings that appears to cover what happened on 20th May 2020, though I imagine that the very loose criteria above will probably allow little to stick.
So we still await Sue Grey. Remember her?
It is an example of his total lack of care that Johnson has got his lawyer to fill in his Met Police form. Someone else doing his homework?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't surprise me. When you need a lawyer to tell you what you do with your life, you're either corrupt or past it. P
DeleteHang on a minute, though. Wasn't that the one where Boris and Carrie were at one table with someone (I forget who)?. They're not "Civil Service" are they? So it's not a "Civil Service" meeting anyway is it? Or am I missing a trick (probably, let me down gently, LOL). Anyway, as this isn't the dreaded FB, I'll have to do you a "like" emoji of the home-made variety. :0)
ReplyDeleteGood point. Is she entitled to sit in? P
DeleteI still await a response to my FOI request! Blatant lies and corruption at the heart of government. We can no longer call ourselves a democracy. We're a Tin Pot dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteKeep pushing. They HAVE to reply. Ask what's happened to it. P
DeleteMinutes are taken, sometimes, as a record of the attendees required actions. Since this most overpowered of governments is light on action (other than emptying the coffers into friends and donors banks) there was probably little point in taking minutes. Either that, or perhaps they were just sloshing champers and laughing at the increasing pile of dead NHS workers.
ReplyDelete