1 - The Black Vault

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• 6)
AIR 20/12556 'UFO' reports January 1974 (additionally AIR 2/18873)- File AIR 20/12556 is not
a 'UFO' file. AIR 2/18873 contains public enquiries concerning 'UFOs' covering the period June 1973
to February 1974 and amounts to some 109 enclosures. Additionally, AF/584 contains 'UFO' reports
for January 1974 amounting to some l 00 enclosures. It would be possible to sanitise and photocopy
the contents of both files (see below).
As I mentioned in my letter of 29 September, the Ministry of Defence is bound by the Code of Practice on
Access to Government Information. This means that we are committed to providing you with the
information you require, as long as it is not exempted under the Code. However, to ensure this does not
create an extra burden on the taxpayer, we have a charging regime for more complicated requests. If a
request is likely to require over four hours' \Vork, each hour's work over four hours (or part thereof) is
charged at £15.00 per hour.
We estimate that the number of documents to be copied in the files mentioned in 1-4 and 6 above is in the
region of 800 pages. Assuming it will take two minutes to check, sanitise and photocopy each page our
calculation is that, after the first 4 hours, 22 hours ohvork at £15.00 per hour will remain totalling some
£330.00. To copy the full 800 pages would be a four day task spread over eight half days. As the fairly
small section likely to take on the \York \viii also be heavily involved in checking material to be released in
January 2001, those eight half days would be spread over an eight week period. The material could be
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