P John Our Ref: FOI 267 302

(by email only: P. John [[FOI #14545 email]])

07 August 2009

Dear Mr John,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

I refer to your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act for particulars of a meeting between CO, HO and BIS (formerly BERR) relating to Phorm. Your request was received on 10 July and this letter is a response to that request.

I must inform you that the Cabinet Office is unable to comply with your request. Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act relieves public authorities of the duty to comply with a request for information if the cost of dealing with it would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit has been specified in regulations and for central Government this is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it.

Further, Regulation 5 of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Frees) Regulations, 2004 (SI 2004 No. 3244), made under Section 12(4) of the Freedom of Information Act permits public authorities to aggregate two or more requests when calculating the cost of complying with requests in certain circumstances. These circumstances are where the requests are received from the same individual or from different individuals who appear to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign; the requests relate, to any extent, to the same or similar information; and those requests are received within any period of sixty consecutive working days.

The Cabinet Office considers that you and several associates have now submitted some 35 requests for information on this subject, at least 5 of which have been made within the last 60 days. Whilst the Cabinet Office has provided you with information in reply to some of these requests where this has been possible within the cost limits provided in law, we consider that when aggregating this particular request with the other associated requests which we have received, the cost threshold will be exceeded. On this basis the Cabinet Office is unable to comply with your request.

I should also point out that the Cabinet Office would propose to deal with any further requests on this subject from you or anyone who appears to be acting in concert with you in a similar manner .

If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request from the Cabinet Office you may ask for an internal review. If you wish to do so you should contact:

Sue Gray

Director

Cabinet Office

70 Whitehall

London

SW1A 2AS

Email: [Cabinet Office request email]

You should note that the Cabinet Office will not normally accept an application for internal review if it is received more than two months after a response was issued.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by Cabinet Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Rachel Clark

Cabinet Secretariat

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