Release of correspondence the ONS and the Treasury, and between the ONS and the Bank of England

You asked

I am emailing under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information.

The request follows a previous successful request I made (ref: FOI-2024-2174) regarding official correspondence between the ONS and the Treasury, and the ONS and the Bank of England.

You interpreted this as “letters on headed paper between the ONS

National Statistician, Second Permanent Secretary, Deputy National Statisticians and the Bankof England (BoE) and HM Treasury (HMT)”.

A table of correspondence was supplied, and I am now writing to request some of those communications. I have used the tabular formatting from that reply to specify the letters I am looking for — please let me know if I can offer further clarity on what I am requesting.

Please can you provide the following correspondence:

Date From To Subject

23/02/2023 BoE Mike Keoghan Letter from [redacted] re prerelease access to statistics for 2023
28/02/2023 Mike Keoghan BoE Letter from [redacted] re prerelease access to statistics for 2023
06/12/2023 Mike Keoghan BoE Pre-release data due in 11 December
06/12/2023 BoE Mike Keoghan Pre-release access data due in 11 December
23/01/2024 BoE Emma Rourke Urgent decision: Request from Bank for EPRA to National population projections
25/01/2024 Emma Rourke BoE Request from Bank for Early Pre-Release Access to National population projections
26/02/2024 BoE Mike Keoghan Bank of England’s request for prerelease access to ONS statistics in 2024
12/03/2024 Mike Keoghan BoE Bank of England’s request for prerelease access to ONS statistics in 2024
09/05/2024 BoE Mike Keoghan (Nat Stat in cc) Letter from [redacted] to Mike Keoghan
11/06/2024 Mike Keoghan HMT Project Bamburgh

I believe the release of this correspondence is in the public interest as it concerns communications between two crucially important public bodies within the UK’s economic framework. In addition, there is a precedent of public bodies being transparent about the content of official communications.

We said

Thank you for your request.  

1. The letters requested regarding pre-release access are published on our website: 

• Please see Exchange of letters between the Bank of England, HMRC and ONS for exceptional pre-release access 2023 for the requested letters dated 23/02/2023 and 28/02/2023. 

• Please see Exchange of letters between Mike Keoghan (ONS) and Ben Broadbent (BoE) for the requested letters dated 06/12/2023. 

• Please see Exchange of letters between the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics for exceptional pre-release access to the Consumer Price Index and Labour Market Statistics for the requested letters dated 26/02/2024 and 12/03/2024.

2. Please see Exchange of letters between Emma Rourke (ONS) and Ben Broadbent Bank of England (BoE) for the letters dated 23/05/2024 and 25/01/2024. 

3. Please find the letter between BoE and Mike Keoghan of 09/05/2024 in the associated download named ‘Letter to Dr M Keoghan ONS on LFS 9 May 2024’. The personal data of external individuals has been redacted under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).  

4. The letter between HMT and Mike Keoghan of 11/06/2024 is exempt under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). This exemption applies where the information requested would prejudice the commercial interests of any person, including the public authority holding it.    

Unfortunately, revealing details of why the exemption applies in this instance would likely, in itself, prejudice the commercial interest of a third party and, by extension, ONS commercial relationship with the third party.   

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise arguments in favour of transparency and accountability for public spending. However, ONS already adhere to these principles when planning the publication of contract details and costs on Contracts Finder and the ONS website. 

Furthermore, we also acknowledge the importance of maintaining the trust and customer confidence of the companies with whom we work. Damage to this trust would impact our own capability to compete and negotiate in a commercial environment. This would lead to a reduction in the choice of quality services offered and also a reduction in competitive incentive amongst suppliers to offer us a good price. This would be detrimental to the preservation of public funds and the quality of service received by members of the public. Therefore, this hindrance to our capability to compete effectively in a commercial environment would directly and negatively impact the public interest. On balance, the public interest falls in favour of withholding this information.