I have received the following letter from the Ministry of Defence who, sadly, appear to be unaware who won the Second World War. They have kindly recommended a book, though, which I shall be sure to seek out:



Ministry of Defence
DG Info, Level 6, Zone E, Desk 03, Main Building, Whitehall, London SW1A 2HB
Telephone: 020 7218 4848 (External) or 9621 84848 (Military)
Fax: 020 7218 4619 (External) or 9621 84619 (Military)
E-mail: e-mail: info-accessOps7@mod.uk
T Simcock
Information Access Ops 7


Mr N Young
norbertyoung@hotmail.co.uk

16 December 2005
Dear Mr Young

Request for Information

Your correspondence dated 7 December 2005 has been considered to be a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 / Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Your request has been assessed. This letter is to inform you that we do not believe that the information you have requested is held by the Ministry of Defence.

A number of Official Histories relating to the Second World War have been published and are available from TSO books: http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp

The Imperial War Museum advises that the following book is available:

Why the Allies Won
By Richard Overy
Published by Jonathan Cape
London 1995
ISBN 0-224-041-72-X

If you are dissatisfied with this decision or wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of this request, then you should contact the undersigned in the first instance. Should you remain dissatisfied, then you may apply for an internal review by contacting the Director of Information Exploitation, 6th Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB.

If you are still unhappy following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk


Yours sincerely

T P Simcock

Despite my disappointing response from the Scottish Executive, today I made the following request to the Ministry of Defence under the Freedom of Information Act. It was made using the on-line application form on their website (http://www.mod.uk/publications/foi/foirequest.htm).



I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the freedom of information act. In order to assist you with this request, I am outlining my query as specifically as possible. If however this request is too wide or too unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

I would like to know who won the Second World War.

I understand that under the act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request. If possible I would prefer to receive correspondence by e-mail.

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.