The DCA commissioned a report by Frontier Economics which
analysed data it had gathered on the cost of processing FOI
requests. It is that data which Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for
Freedom of Information has requested, and has been refused access
to.
The Frontier Economics report found that the processing of FOI
requests costs public bodies £35 million a year. This partly formed
the basis of the Government's decision to limit the numbers of
requests and change the charging structure relating to
requests.
"We asked the DCA for the results of the one week survey they
carried out at the beginning of the year to look at the actual time
spent by officials in dealing with requests," Frankel told OUT-LAW.
"This is the data that was given to Frontier Economics and forms a
major part of the data that they based their assessments on and
we've been refused that data on the basis that it relates to the
formulation of government policy and disclosure would not be in the
public interest."
"We've now challenged that because there's a very strong steer
in the Act itself that factual information should normally be
disclosed and what we've asked for is primarily factual
information," he said.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information has published the letter
from the DCA refusing the request. "I can confirm that the
department holds information falling within the scope of all three
elements of your request," it says. "However, the information is
exempt from disclosure under section 35(1)(a) of the FOI Act, which
exempts information that relates to the formulation and development
of government policy."
A spokeswoman for the DCA told OUT-LAW that the decision was
under internal review. "Factual and statistical information should
not be released while the policy decision has not been made, and
this decision has not been made yet," said the spokeswoman,
referring to the changes to the charging structure relating to the
FOI Act.
"The whole debate becomes very difficult if the Government is
not prepared to release the factual survey which forms the basis of
the Frontier Economics report," said Frankel. "We think the DCA has
disregarded its own advice to Whitehall on the application of this
exemption. It says that there have to be very clear grounds for
refusing factual information."
It has also emerged that the costings used to calculate the £35
million total included an hourly charge of £300 for ministers' time
in its assessments of the true cost of FOI request processing.
"The problem is that we don't know what the basis of that £300
an hour charge is and we don't know how it's been calculated, there
is no explanation of how exactly it's been derived or why involving
a minister should cost as much as that, it's a vast sum to be
attributed to a minister," said Frankel.
Though Frontier did not respond to a request for comment, one of
the company's directors, Michael Ridge, told The Guardian newspaper
that "it is difficult to identify an appropriate benchmark for the
cost of ministerial time. However the opportunity costs of
ministerial time could be considered similar to that of senior
executives or partners in a city law firm".
"By using figures that appear to be very high and whose basis is
not clear one has to question the whole basis for deciding that the
whole cost of the FOI Act is £35 million," said Frankel.
