12 March 2010

Mr C Taylor

Via email ([FOI #29397 email])

Our ref: CS/10/018/HJP

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

If telephoning contact Hilary Pook on 020 7217 4734

or if using email send to: [email address]

Dear Mr Taylor

Request for information

In your email of 20 February, you asked for Mr White's last eight travel claims prior to the one we supplied in response to your request made just before Christmas. Then you made two requests, one for Mr White's last travel claim and one for his last hotel and subsistence claim.

We believe you may be trying to evade the application of the Fees Regulations by making a series of small requests which, if all made at once, would exceed the “appropriate limit”. Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act provides an exemption from a public authority's obligation to comply with a request for information where the cost of compliance is estimated to exceed the appropriate limit. The Fees Regulations (which state what the appropriate limit is - in our case, £450) also state that two or more requests can be aggregated for the purposes of calculating costs if they are by the same person, for the same or similar information, and if a subsequent request is received within 60 days of the previous one.

While the requests you have made so far do not exceed the fees limit, we have no way of knowing how many more you might decide to make. As information has been released on Mr White's expenses for a number of years, we cannot see the purpose in making these requests for individual expense claims. We are not, therefore, going to comply with this request.

/…

That concludes my response. If you feel I have not dealt properly with your request, you have the right to appeal and, should you wish to do so, I can supply a copy our internal complaints procedure. If you do request an internal review - can you please indicate why you are unhappy with my response. You also have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner to determine whether your request has been properly dealt with. You should note however that the Commissioner will not consider any complaint where you have not first exhausted our internal complaints process or where there has been undue delay in contacting him. You will be able to obtain further details of the Information Commissioner's role from the website on www.ico.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Hilary Pook

Hilary Pook (Ms)

Communications and Records Manager

LGO 01 (03/08)