Middle East and North Africa Directorate
Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeKing Charles Street
London SW1A 2AHWebsite: https://www.gov.uk

Jake Mason Esq
Department of Journalism Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences
The University of Sheffield
9 Mappin Street Sheffield S1 4DT
Via email: jkmason1@sheffield.ac.uk

14 December 2018

Dear Mr Mason
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUESTS REF: 1184-18, 1185-18
and 1208-18
Thank you for your emails of 31 October 2018 and 6 November 2018 asking for
information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000 reference requests
1184-18, 1185-18 and 1208-18. You asked:
FOI Request ref: 1184-18
I am writing to request information on FCO contracts with InCoStrat.
Please can you provide me with the full legal name of the company (including its legal company form e.g. LTD,PLC, LLC) and its full registered address?
In addition, please can you provide me with the details (e.g. contract name, description/summary) of all
HMG contracts awarded to InCoStrat? Also, is FCO spending on InCoStrat provided through the CSSF?
Finally, please can you provide me with a breakdown of the exact spend per contract with reference
to the attached government transparency data?
FOI Request ref: 1185-18 refinement
With respect to the FCO's payment of £825,342 to Mayday Rescue on 31 March 2015, please can you provide
me with the full legal name of Mayday Rescue (including its legal company form e.g. LTD, PLC, LLC) and its fullregistered address?

Can you confirm whether all FCO payments to 'Mayday Rescue' as listed in published government transparency
data have been to the same company?
In addition, please can you provide me with the details (e.g. contract name, description/summary) of all HMGcontracts awarded to Mayday Rescue since January 2011?
FOI Request ref (1208-18)
I am writing to request information on FCO contracts with Regester Larkin
For the following questions, I am referring to the FCO payment of £136,373.80 on 08 May 2014 (see here for alink to the FCO transparency data).
Please can you provide me with the full legal name of the company (including its legal company form e.g. LTD,
PLC, LLC) and its full registered address?
In addition, please can you provide me with the details (e.g. contract name, description/summary) of the FCO
contract awarded to Regester Larkin?

I am writing to confirm that we have now completed the search for the information
which you requested.
I can confirm that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does holdinformation relevant to your requests. The FCO only holds information on
its own contracts.
Under section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response
to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. Information relevant
to company/organisation details can be found respectively at the following links:
http://www.incostrat.com/; http://www.maydayrescue.org/; andhttps://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/deloitte-acquiresregester-larkin.html.
Since 2013 the FCO has contracted Mayday Rescue to implement a project tosupport Syria Civil Defence (White Helmets). All FCO payments to Mayday Rescue
listed in the transparency data have been made to the same organisation.
Some of the information you have requested about InCoStrat and Regester Larkin
is exempt under section 38(1)(a) and (b) (Health & Safety) as disclosure would
or would be likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual orendanger the safety of any individual. This qualified exemption requires theapplication of the public interest test.
In applying the public interest test we took into consideration the factors in favour ofdisclosure; in this case that releasing such information would demonstrate openness
in the FCO’s dealings with InCoStrat and Regester Larkin. We balanced this against
the grounds for non-disclosure, which rests on the fact that project implementers
have a duty of care to their personnel working overseas and in any country they
operate in. Disclosure of the specific details you request might expose thecontractors, employees and other individuals to significant risk to their personalsafety. On balance we concluded that the public interest in maintaining thisexemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Other information you have requested concerning InCoStrat and Regester Larkinwould be likely to prejudice the interests of the UK abroad. (Section 27(1)(c)).
Section 27(1)(c) is a qualified exemption and as such we have considered where thegreater public interest lies. Disclosure could meet the public interest in transparency
and accountability. However, the effective conduct of international relations depends
upon maintaining trust and confidence between governments. If the UK does not
maintain this trust and confidence, its ability to protect and promote UK interests
through international relations will be hampered, which will not be in the public
interest. The disclosure of information which includes specific details on our relationship with various states could potentially damage the relationship between theUK and those states. The relationships are on-going and information - even datingback some time - could be taken into account by those states. This could reduce
the UK Government's ability to protect and promote UK interests which would not
be in the public interest. For these reasons we consider that the public interestin maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any
non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting.
Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permissionof the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the FCO will have been
produced by government officials and will be protected by Crown Copyright. To reuse Crown Copyright documents please consult the Open Government Licence v3
on the National Archives website.
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to beprotected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information
originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any
third party (non-Crown Copyright) information.
If you would like a review of our decision, or if you wish to make a complaint, pleasewrite to the Central FOI Unit, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Room WH2.177,
King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH. E-mail: foi-dpa.pmcs@fco.gov.uk.
You have 40 working days to do so from the date of this letter.
You can apply directly to the Information Commissioner. However, the Information
Commissioner will not normally make a decision unless you have first exhausted
the complaints procedure provided by the FCO. The Information Commissioner canbe contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,Middle East and North Africa Directorate

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