Some of our public challenges of ministers and others are associated with other documents we want them (or, more likely, their officials) to consider, and are therefore lengthy, and we sometimes choose to mail rather than email them. We will be very disinclined to do so in future. Some weeks ago we enquired about an overdue FoI response in relation to a challenge we’d sent to Sajid Javid, Business Secretary. We were informed the document hadn’t been received, so the 20-day period for a FoI response started that day.

We’ve just had the same charade happen with our public challenge of Theresa May, Home Secretary, in connection with the FoI challenge we posted on 14 July, in which we asked why the police aren’t prosecuting MGM practitioners, when the procedure is clearly illegal – here. The FoI team at the Home Office deny receipt of the document. A response is now due 21 September.