Dear Mr Thackeray

Re: Request under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act

Thank you for your e-mail dated the 3^rd of February 2009, in which you sought information relating to the following from the Ministry of Justice.

Please provide a list of all gifts, hospitality or donations supplied to HM Prison Service by Scientology organisations, over the past 5 years.

Your request is being handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as a request for information.

I am afraid that this is information is not held centrally and this would come under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central Government is set at £600, which represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. We estimate that your request would surely exceed the limit. I would just like to explain that we would have to go every prison, which in total is over a 138 prisons and this would exceed our costs limits.

However, if you refine it so that it falls under the cost limit we will consider it further. You should however be aware that if you break your request down into a series of smaller requests, we might, depending on the circumstances of the case, decline to answer if the aggregated cost of complying exceeds £600, as permitted by the Fees Regulations.

If you are unhappy with the result of your request for information, you may request an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter by writing to the above address

If you remain unhappy with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

If you have filled this survey out before, we invite you to fill it out again in light of the recent response to your request.

Yours sincerely

Hazel Lansdale

Data Access & Compliance Unit

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