Legislative background

This policy is concerned with the levying of fees and charges in relation to requests for access to information received by the county council in accordance with the following:

• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Environmental Information Regulations
• Data Protection Act 1998

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

The FOIA & Data Protection (Appropriate Limit & Fees) Regulations 2004 identify the fees and charges public sector bodies are permitted to levy in response to requests for the supply of information under the FOIA.

The regulations cover the estimation of costs in association with a request for information, the fee that can be levied and the recovery of postage, printing and photocopying costs where appropriate.

Under the Act the council is also required to maintain a publication scheme that identifies classes of information that will generally be made reasonably accessible. Information covered by the scheme is exempt from the formal FOIA access regime. Wherever possible information available in accordance with the Scheme will be provided free of charge although there may be exceptions to this.

Environmental Information Regulations (EIR)

The draft Environmental Information Regulations 2004 identify the fees and charges public sector bodies are permitted to levy in response to requests for the supply of environmental information. The final Regulations were approved early in 2005.

The regulations are not prescriptive in terms of the fees and charges that can be levied for the supply of information. It is recognised that there is a cost in supplying information and the regulations provide a discretionary power for this to be defrayed by the imposition of charges on applicants, provided that any charge does not exceed the costs reasonably attributable to the supply of the information.

Data Protection Act 1998

A flat fee of £10 is permissible for the supply of structured personal information in accordance with Section 7 (subject access provisions) of the DPA 1998.

The FOIA amends the DPA 1998 by permitting individuals access to their unstructured personal data. This means information that is not held in a structured filing system and is not necessarily referenced to the individual, or to criteria relating to the individual. Such requests must be very specific and an individual is required to provide a description of the personal information that they are requesting.

The FOIA & Data Protection (Appropriate Limit & Fees) Regulations 2004 identify the fees and charges public sector bodies are permitted to levy in response to requests for the supply of unstructured personal information under the DPA 1998.

Fees and charges structure

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The fee threshold is £450.

No fee can be levied for requests that are estimated to cost £450 or less.

Where the estimated fee is £450 or below a charge can be made for postage, photocopying and printing costs, although where such costs are less than £5 they must be waived. We will not charge more than 10p per single sheet of A4 paper.

If the estimated fee exceeds £450, but is less than £925, then the request must be dealt with and the information provided once the fee has been received.

If the estimated fee exceeds £925 then the request must be refused and the applicant informed.

If a fee is particularly high the applicant should be contacted to find out whether or not he/she wishes to modify the request to reduce the cost.

Estimating the cost of a request:

The prescribed hourly rate for officer time is £25.

The activities that can be taken into account are:

• determining whether the information is held
• locating & retrieving it, and
• extracting it (including editing/redacting)

Time taken to consider whether any exemptions apply to all or part of the information cannot be taken into account.

Environmental Information Regulations

The arrangements described for the FOIA will apply to requests for environmental information. The council does not have the right to refuse a request for environmental information on the grounds of cost.

Data protection

A charge of £10 will be levied for responding to subject access requests for structured personal data.

Charges for responding to subject access requests for unstructured personal data will be as for the FOIA.

Fees letter

Where applicable a Fees Letter will be issued and no further action will be taken until a fee is received. Failure to submit the fee within 3 months of the Letter being issued will cause the request to lapse and a new request will need to be submitted.

In all instances it will be necessary to receive the due fee before providing the information requested.

Refunds

In exceptional circumstances all or part of a fee may be refunded. This will be at the discretion of an appropriate senior manager and/or the Council's DPO/FOI Officer.

Review of charges

A review of the policy will be undertaken after 12 months (or earlier if considered necessary), or whenever a change to the Acts or regulations impacts on the charging arrangements.