Dear Mr Bimmler

Re: Request for information

Thank you for your email of 14^th January 2010, in which you refined part 3 of your original request of 14^th December 2009 to relate to all documents created on or after July 1^st 2009. You have asked for the following from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ);

I refer to the Lords Hansard of December 10, 2009, Column 1195:

"[Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead speaking]

I undertook to respond to the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner of

Parkes, on Members of the House who are Commonwealth and Republic

of Ireland citizens. It appears that the Electoral Administration

Act 2006 may have inadvertently cast doubts on whether Commonwealth

and Republic of Ireland citizens were eligible for membership of

the House. That was clearly not Parliament's intention when passing

the Act. Some months ago, the Government were alerted to the

matter. Since then, we have undertaken discussions within

government to find a way to address it."

May I ask you to provide me with the following records:

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to electoral matters and has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am sorry to inform you that, despite refining your request, it is clear that it is still too broad in scope and as such I am unable to answer your request. I can say that if we assumed that it would take 2 ½ minutes per file (at a minimum) to look for all the data you want, we have estimated that it would take at least 39-40 hours of work. This far exceeds the cost limit within section 12, which states the limit is £600 or 3.5 working days. It is on that basis that we are unable to comply with your request for information.

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.

You may wish to narrow the scope of your request again in order to try and bring it within the cost limit, by being more specific about which information you wish to receive, including any other dates or periods of time which are relevant. You may wish to consider refining the time period to a more specific and shorter time frame. If you wish to respond narrowing your request then we will consider whether it comes within the cost limit.

Please be aware that if you were to refine your request to bring it within the cost limit, it may still engage other exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act.

To answer your point about parts 1 and 2 of your request being answerable as you believe that only one document is covered by each part, I can confirm that as part 3 of your request engages the costs exemption we are not obliged under the Freedom of Information Act to consider the other parts.

You may find it helpful to know that on 15 December 2009, Lord Bach, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice, made a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) which gave a commitment to bring forward legislation in this Parliament on the issue arising from the Electoral Administration Act 2006 in order to remove any uncertainty on the issue - and an amendment would be tabled to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, currently before the House of Commons, to achieve this. I attach a link to the WMS,

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldhansrd/text/91215-wms0003.htm#column_WS241

Subsequently, the Government tabled an amendment to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill on this issue for consideration at Commons Committee Stage of the Bill on 19 January. The amendment (new clause 57) was approved by Commons Committee and the provision is now part of the Bill. I attach the link to the Hansard report of the matter,

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100119/debtext/100119-0021.htm

The amendment is as follows:

(a) membership of the House of Commons, or

(b) anything from which a person is disqualified by virtue of a disqualification from membership of that House.

(2) Section 3 of the Act of Settlement (1700 c. 2) has effect accordingly, and has done so since the coming into force of section 18 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (c. 22).

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 calendar months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6th Floor,

Post point 6.24

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

Kirsten O'Connell