Email 1251 is from Phil Jones to Tim Osborn and Dave Palmer. They have been discussing how to deal with David Holland's request for the release of Briffa's IPCC-related correspondence, but the conversation moves onto a slightly different track:
Subject: FOI - the issue with IPCC that is going to the Commissioner
Tim, Dave,
I've spoken to Renate Christ who is head of the IPCC Secretariat in Geneva. I've given her a note about what we want, but we won't get a response by our August deadline.
What will happen though is that the whole issue of National FOIs/EIRs will be discussed at the next full IPCC plenary meeting in Bali in October. This is not a meeting that many scientists will go to. IPCC have got lawyers involved from their sponsoring UN organizations (UNEP and WMO). They have been alerted up to the issue by us and by others (mainly from US organizations like NOAA, DoE). They will come to a ruling then.
I know this doesn't help us for this request, but hopefully future IPCC-related FOIs/EIRs will be easier to deal with.
It seems as though they are taking the issue seriously. I did tell them that the various FOI acts probably differ slightly, but they seem to be aware of that.
Cheers
Phil