8 January 2009

Mr S Hardwicke Carruthers

Via email ([email address])

Our ref: CS/08/0114/NJK

(Please quote our reference when contacting us)

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Requests for information

In view of the number of requests for information you have made to the Commission in recent months, under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, I have decided that future requests - including some that are outstanding - should be handled with reference to the Information Commissioner's recent guidance on dealing with vexatious requests (Vexatious or repeated requests, version 4, 3 December 2008.) This guidance suggests that authorities should consider the following questions when deciding whether a request is vexatious or not:

You have made the largest number of requests from any individual (42 since the middle of July 2008). The next highest number from one individual is 11 in a similar period. It is a fact that many of your requests individually - and certainly cumulatively - cause a significant burden to my staff, and diverts them from their usual work. For example, a number of your requests have asked for information over 10 years, where two or three years would be considered more reasonable. Older information is often of very little use in many contexts. We are a small organisation with no staff dedicated to dealing with Freedom of Information requests, so the increase in workload that the large number and scope of the requests you have made represents does divert a substantial amount of our resources from mainstream work.

/…

We believe that many of your requests lack any serious purpose or value. If this is so, then - linked with the fact that providing the information requested represents a significant burden on my staff - I would consider such requests vexatious. (The Information Commissioner's guidance tells authorities to take account of the wider context and history of the request when considering whether a request is vexatious or not.)

Under these circumstances I have decided that before my department processes any further FOIA requests from you I need you to provide an explanation of your reason for making each of these requests. My department will then be in a position to establish that your request has `serious purpose and value'. In the absence of such an explanation we are likely to decide that your request is vexatious and will not process it further. It will, of course be open to you to appeal my department's decision, initially to me and, if necessary, to then complain to the Information Commissioner about my decision.

Yours sincerely

Deputy Chief Executive and Secretary of the Commission

LGO 01 (03/08)