To: FOI.Team@ons.gov.uk
Subject: Internal Review Request – FOI-2025-2962 (scope, searches, and Section 16 duty)

Dear Freedom of Information Team,

Please conduct an internal review of your response to my request FOI-2025-2962.

I appreciate your reply and the condolences you offered. However, I believe the response may have been too narrowly framed and did not fully discharge the Section 16 FOIA duty to advise and assist. Specifically:

1. Scope and recorded searches
   • Please confirm what recorded searches were undertaken for this request (systems searched, search terms, directorates/teams consulted, and date ranges).
   • Please confirm whether ONS holds (even indirectly) any aggregate aviation, border, or travel-related statistics supplied by other bodies (e.g., DfT, CAA, HO/Border Force) that could, at an aggregate level, speak to:
     • Private/charter movements by airport/month or year (2002–2015), and
     • Whether such aggregates explicitly exclude private/charter categories.
2. Datasets and catalogues
   • Please confirm whether ONS or the UK Statistics Authority holds or indexes any metadata/catalogue entries (e.g., in the Secure Research Service or legacy repositories) that reference:
     • Civil Aviation Authority flight movement datasets (scheduled vs. unscheduled/private), or
     • Department for Transport aviation statistics with sub-breakdowns for private or business aviation.
   • If these exist (even if ONS does not own them), please provide the dataset titles, descriptions, and owning bodies (no raw data requested here if not held).
3. Section 16 – Advice and assist (referrals)
   • Even if ONS holds no relevant data, Section 16 and the Section 45 Code expect signposting to likely holders. Your reply mentioned the NCA Missing Persons Unit. Please also confirm whether, to your knowledge, the following are likely data holders and thus appropriate referrals:
     • Civil Aviation Authority (CAA): aggregate movements (including private/charter) by airport and month/year.
     • Department for Transport (DfT) Aviation Statistics: scheduled vs. non-scheduled series.
     • Home Office / Border Force: Advanced Passenger Information (API) policy/statistics.
     • National Records custodians: any archived aviation movement summaries for 2002–2015.

For clarity, I am not asking ONS to create new data or to obtain third-party data. I’m asking for: (a) the recorded details of your searches, (b) confirmation of any dataset catalogue entries you hold that reference relevant aviation series, and (c) clear signposting to the most appropriate authorities.

Please conduct the internal review within the usual timescales and cite FOI-2025-2962 in your reply.

Kind regards,
Martin Newbold
(Emily was taken in August 2010; this timeframe underpins my requests.)

OI Team <FOI.Team@ons.gov.uk> Jul 28, 2025, 2:55 PM

Our Reference: FOI-2025-2962

Dear Martin,

Thank you for your request for information. May we firstly offer our sincere condolences regarding your missing daughter. We appreciate how distressing this time must be for you.

Regarding your queries, unfortunately, the information you have requested is not collected or held by the ONS. We do not collect data on private chartered flights, nor do we collect information on passengers/passenger logs themselves or missing persons and travel.

I can also confirm that ONS has not requested such data from other organisations, nor can we therefore comment on whether statistics involving missing persons and travel are deliberately excluded from public releases. 

The National Crime Agency (NCA) publishes statistics on missing persons from the UK Missing Persons Unit. Some of their publications can be found on their website: National Crime Agency. You may wish to approach them directly to see if they can assist any further.

I am sorry we have been unable to help you further. 

You have the right to have this response to your Freedom of Information request reviewed internally by an internal review process and, if you remain unhappy with the decision, by the Information Commissioner. If you would like to have the decision reviewed please email the Freedom of Information Team at ‘foi.team@ons.gov.uk’ or write to The FoI Team, Office for National Statistics, Segensworth Road, Titchfield PO15 5RR, and mark your correspondence “Internal Review”.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact the Freedom of Information Team (‘foi.team@ons.gov.uk‘).

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Kind regards,

The Freedom of Information Team | UK Statistics Authority | Awdurdod Ystadegau’r Deyrnas Unedig

@UKStatsAuth | FOI.Team@ons.gov.uk | http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk

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