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GOVERNMENT HOSPITALITY

LANCASTER HOUSE, ST JAMES'S, LONDON SW1A 1BB

TELEPHONE : 020-7008 8517

FACSIMILE : 020-7008 8526

7 July 2008

Our ref: 0487-08

Mr Alastair Manderson

[FOI #613 email]

Dear Mr Manderson

Freedom of Information Request

I am writing in response to your [Author ID1: at Fri Jul 4 11:18:00 2008 ]request for information, which I received on 12 June. In that request you asked for details of the average cost per bottle of wine purchased in the years 2001 to 2007, and also what percentage of these wines were i) white and ii) red; and what percentage were purchased from i) France and ii) North America.

As Head of Government Hospitality (GH), the section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office responsible for organising official ministerial hospitality within the UK, I am also responsible for the management of the government wine cellar and the management of the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine.

To calculate the average cost of the wines purchased year on year for each of the last seven years would incur disproportionate costs. However, I can advise you that the average cost of wines purchased in the last twelve months (June 2007 to May 2008) was £15.28 per bottle. During this period, approximately 51% of the wines purchased were white wines, and 49% were red. 69% of the wines purchased were from France. None of the wines were from North America, but approximately 17% of the wines purchased were from Chile.

With regards to disproportionate costs, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provisions for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The limit has been specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. For central government the appropriate limit is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one or more persons spending 3 ½ days working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it. Your request as presently formulated is widely-framed and I estimate that it will take more than 3 ½ working days to locate, retrieve and extract this information. In these circumstances we are not obliged under the Act to comply with your request.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision, you should write to me. Please note any request for an internal review must be submitted within 40 working days from the date our response was issued.

If you are not content with the outcome your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Alexander

Robert M O'D Alexander

Head of Government Hospitality

Protocol Directorate

[email address]