Information Access Team
Financial and Commercial Group
Ground Floor (NW), Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
Direct Line 020 7035 1024 Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail [email address] www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Mr G Sittampalam
Our Ref 11435
Your Ref
Request-9214-
Date
19 October 2009
[email address]
Dear Mr Sittampalam
The Information Commissioner recently sent us a copy of a request for an internal review you
asked us to conduct in May into a reply you received from the Police reform Unit at the Home
Office. You had asked for details of grants provided by the Home Office to the Association of
Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and copies of the contracts between the Home Office and
ACPO. I am very sorry to say that the Information Management Service did not receive your
request for an internal review, but as soon as we did I was asked to conduct that review. The
purpose of this letter is to let you know the outcome of my investigations.
Your initial request was refused under section 12 of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act on
the basis that complying with it would exceed the cost limit beyond which public authorities are
not obliged to comply with requests. Further detail about section 12 and the cost limit were
included in the letter on 24 April. While carrying out my review, I noted that your request for
information for details of grants to ACPO did not specify any period of time that you were
interested in. Consequently, I support the decision to refuse your request under section 12 of
the Act on cost grounds. While the Home Office Police Reform Unit has published a list of
grants made in the recent past (see link provided previously), they do not hold the individual
contracts that you requested. These are held by the individual units across the Home Office
which dealt with the individual grants in question. Given that ACPO was formed in 1948, and
given the number of grants issued per year, it is clearly the case that the cost limit would be
exceeded in locating all information relevant to your request as initial y submitted. It is
estimated that it would take around 40 hours to collate the information covering the last
financial year for example.
During my investigation, I noted that in April you asked for advice as to how you might refine
your request so as to bring it within the cost limit, but you did not receive a reply until 27 July.
It is my view that the reply you were sent was not as helpful as it should have been as you
were simply guided to the Home Office website where details of our various directorate and
units can be found. This would not have provided you with any information as to whether any
of these areas had in fact provided grants to ACPO. Please accept my apologies for this
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shortcoming, which represents a breach of the duty to provide adequate advice and
assistance contained in section 16 of the FOI Act.
You may wish to consider sending the Home Office a revised request for information, either by
asking for details of some of the grants listed in the Hansard extract you were provided with or
by specifying a precise period of time in which you are interested (noting the estimate above).
It would also be easier to provide a list of awards for a particular period of time than all the
contracts. Please send any refined request to e-mail address:
[Home Office request email].
If you are not satisfied with this response you have a further right of complaint to the
Information Commissioner who can be contacted at the following address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmore
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Steve Kirk
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