UNITED KINGDOM
The proportion of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests refused by UK Government Departments on the grounds of cost has risen from six per cent to 14 per cent over the past nine years.
The findings, based on data published by the Cabinet Office on 466,000 requests made between January 2010 and September 2019, show that cost-based refusals now outnumber all those made under a range of 23 other reasons.
According to the data, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) turned down 32 per cent of requests on the basis of cost during this period, more than any other Department or Agency.
A spokesperson for the CPS said it received a large number of FoI requests every year “and a highly-trained team work to provide full and timely responses in line with our responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act”.
“Many requests centre around casework outcomes for specific offences and this information can only be obtained by manually reviewing thousands of case files,” the spokesperson said.
“These searches are very time-consuming and so many are exempt under cost grounds.”
The CPS was followed by the Department for International Development, which refused 29 per cent of requests on cost grounds.
A spokesperson said the Department had 26 overseas offices, increasing the potential cost of requests that would require input from some or all of them.
“We are fully committed to transparency and always comply with the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act,” a spokesperson said.
Government organisations, along with Parliament and the armed forces, can turn down FoI requests if they estimate that it will cost them more than £600 ($A1,163) to respond, with a limit of £450 ($A872) for other parts of the public sector.
London, 16 February 2020
