Dear Mrs Williams,

Request for information

Thank you for your email of 6^th October 2009, requesting the following information from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under the Freedom of Information Act:[Author ID2: at Mon Nov 2 14:18:00 2009 ]

Please state how many notices: Affidavit of Interest of Claim of Brith right have been filed into the Family Courts in particular Medway Family Court (on the private side) by relatives of children who have been place on care/adoption/special guardianship/ orders

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering Freedom of Information Act requests which relates[Author ID2: at Thu Aug 27 12:07:00 2009 ] to Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS). Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

However turning to your request, we contacted the Medway County Court for the information that you have requested. They have confirmed that they cannot readily ascertain from their records if any such notices (Affidavit of Interest of Claim of Brith right) have been filed by the Medway. They have explained that there is no way of separating Private and Public Law applications, and in order to ascertain whether they hold the information requested it would require them to search through each and every Children Act case. There are approximately 881 court files from 2007 to date. They have estimated that if each case were to take 5 minutes to check, this would total 73.4 working hours and it would take them almost two working weeks to locate, retrieve and extract the information requested.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central Government is set at £600, which represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3 ½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. [Author ID0: at ]

[Author ID2: at Mon Nov 2 14:18:00 2009 ]

We estimate that the costs of complying with your requests would exceed the cost limit and consequently refused on that basis.

You may therefore wish to narrow the scope of your request in order to 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. However, you need to be aware that any revised request submitted may be subject to the application of an exemption or the appropriate limit set out in the Act.

[Author ID2: at Thu Aug 27 12:10:00 2009 ]

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

6^th Floor, Zone B

Post point 1.41

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

e-mail: [HMCS request email]

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

Emma McGahren

Personal Assistant to Regional Leads

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