Thursday
Jan282010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Rosenbaum on no prosecutions
Jan 28, 2010 Climate: CRU FOI The BBC's FoI correspondent, Martin Rosenbaum, has written an interesting piece on the "no prosecutions" story. Read it here.
Reader Comments (6)
Now we will get the FOI advocates fired up as well. This is good. Clearly the FOIA is a joke as clearly shown in his article.
Gonna be interesting six months coming up.
Just appeared on the Martin Rosenbaum page:
UPDATE, 15:53: The University of East Anglia has now issued a statement. Its Vice Chancellor Edward Acton said:
"The ICO's opinion that we had breached the terms of Section 77 is a source of grave concern to the university as we would always seek to comply with the terms of the Act. During this case we have sought the advice of the ICO and responded fully to any requests for information."
As a comment on the Rosenbaum asrticle says - "The law concerning what a Magistrate's Court can and cannot deal with puts a six month time limit on the date of the offence *OR* the date the offence was discovered."
The offence came to light with the publication of the CRU emails - the ICO has the evidence so why are not prepared to prosecute? Yes this might end up going on appeal as far as the Supreme Court but at least it would give the Law Lords an opportunity to make some relevant case law. The ICO needs to shows some b***s and get things moving rather than moaning about the 1980 Magistrates Act.
@Evading the truth
Things are getting warmer now (no pun intended). I think the ICO might be on the verge of recognizing the "OR" in the 1980 Magistrates Act. Soon the ICO will realize that concealing a gun in your jacket six months, one year, or however long ago does not mean that you cannot be prosecuted once the act of concealment is discovered.
Poor old UEA - not having a good day are they? Shame.
Ok, what I do not get is how they figure the "six month statute of limitations" even applies here. Until the respond the the FOIA request with the data, they are commiting the violation every day, are they not?