Dear Ms Davies

Request for information

Thank you for your email of 31^st March 2009, in which you asked for information regarding the number of prosecutions undertaken for offences against Magistrates (and the number of convictions thereby obtained), for as many past years as is possible, broken down by the offence type, from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) and has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am sorry to inform you that from my preliminary assessment of your request, it is clear that I will not be able to answer your request without further clarification.

In order to provide you with the information on the scale that you have requested would involve contacting each Magistrates Court, then to look through each individual case in order to obtain the information that you require as this information is not centrally held.

Section 12 of the FOIA makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

As your request is widely framed, I estimate that it will take us in excess of 3.5 working days to determine appropriate material within the scope of your request, and locate, retrieve and extract that information.

You may wish to narrow the scope of your request in order to try and bring it within the cost limit, by being more specific about which information you wish to receive, including any dates or periods of time which are relevant. For example, you may wish to narrow the scope of your request by asking for the following information:

I am sorry that on this occasion it has not been possible to suggest ways in which you could narrow the scope of your request in order to bring it within the cost limit.

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

1^st Floor, Zone 1C

Post point 1.41

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

E-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Yours sincerely

David Keysell

Data Access & Compliance Unit