Response Date: 01 Mar 2006
I can confirm that the Authority holds information falling within the description specified in your request. The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 allow an Authority, in the following circumstances, to aggregate requests received when calculating if the appropriate limit of £450 has been reached: - Two or more requests for information have been made; - They must be from the same person, or from different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign (section 12(4)(b) of the FOIA); - The requests must relate to the same or similar information; - They were received within a space of sixty consecutive working days In the last sixty consecutive working days (i.e. since 6 December 2005) you have submitted thirteen other requests for information and taken collectively I estimate that the cost of complying with your requests would exceed the appropriate limit of £450. The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for non-central Government departments it is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act the Authority is not obliged to comply with your request and I will not be processing your request further.