Dear Mr McCloy,

SUBJECT: Freedom of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information in which you seek a break down of the information in relation to the number of Contact Orders which issued from 2006 to 2009 inclusive, in terms of:-

Your request was received on 18th February and has been handled under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI).

Although the information you seek is contained in manual files, details of contact to the level you require is not collected for statistical analysis. In order to answer your request it would be necessary to conduct a manual trawl of family files across multiple court venues and court tiers.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act does not require the Court Service to comply with a request if the cost of providing the information would exceed the `appropriate limit' of £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the Court Service holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information. The cost of conducting a trawl of Contact Orders which issued for the years 2006 to 2009 inclusive, in Family Proceedings Courts, Family Care Centres and the High Court to locate and record the information you seek would be disproportionate and for that reason, regrettably, we will not be processing your request further.

I am sorry I can be of no further assistance in this matter.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may ask the Court Service to conduct an internal review in relation to your request. A request for an internal review should be addressed to: Patricia Quinn, Information Access Team, Information Centre, Laganside House, 23 -25 Oxford Street, Belfast, BT1 3LA.  If following the internal review you remain dissatisfied with the Court Service's treatment of your request then you are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner's address is Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any queries about your request please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Glynis Crawford

Communications Group