Dear Mr Bimmler

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your e-mail of 20 March, in which you refined your request for information held by the Ministry of Justice in connection with the recent use the veto by the Secretary of State under section 53 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). You narrowed your request to cover

Private office of the Lord Chancellor / SoS (Jack Straw)

Directorate-General "Democracy, Constitution & Law" (if excessive, only in the unit responsible for "Information law and information management for government")

If this is still not possible, I would ask for the search only to be conducted in Mr Straw's Private Office.

Your request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) as a request for information.

I am sorry to inform you that having assessed the volume of information held in the two locations you specified, it is clear that to provide the information you have requested would still exceed the limits as defined under section 12 of the FOIA. This would still be true even if the request was restricted to the Secretary of State's Office.

Section 12 of the FOIA allows public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. The costs include the cost of locating and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as photocopying or postage.

I am sorry that on this occasion I have not been able to be of more assistance. As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

1^st Floor, Zone 1C

Post point 1.41

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

e-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information 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

Paul Brigland

Data Access & Compliance Unit