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'Why is the Duchy of Cornwall exempt from the Freedom of Information Act?'.
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Constitutional Settlement Division 7th Floor, Post Point 7.40 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ
T 0203 334 3555 F 0203 334 4445 E [email address] www.justice.gov.uk |
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Mr Philip Hosking (by email)
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5 June 2009 |
Dear Mr Hosking
Duchy of Cornwall
Thank you for your email of 3rd March where you requested an internal review of the decision made by the Ministry of Justice in relation to your request for information as to whether the Duchy of Cornwall was ever discussed by Government in relation to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and Schedule 1 of that Act; who gave an opinion on this subject, and what they said. I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.
The Department has now conducted a review and the decision is upheld for the following reasons:
Any information of this sort which might be held by the Government could be recorded among a very large number of documents relating to policy on freedom of information created between the Government's coming to power in 1997 and the passage of the FOI Act in 2000.
Section 12(2) of the FOI Act exempts a public authority from the duty to confirm whether or not they hold the information being requested if they estimate that the cost of the necessary work would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government is set at £600, which represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in identifying, locating, retrieving and extracting the information requested.
Having looked again at this request, I agree that the work that would be necessary to enable us to confirm whether the Department holds information within the scope of your request would exceed the appropriate limit.
I would like to take this opportunity to explain again that, given the circumstances explained by my colleague Janet Hawkes in her previous correspondence, the Ministry believes it to be extremely unlikely that information of the sort you request is actually held.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the 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
Eirian Walsh Atkins
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