Aggregated FOI Requests

Confirmation of Freedom Of Information Request

Thank you for your request for information.

Your request details have now been recorded and will be passed on to the
appropriate Divisional Records Officer for action.

This Freedom Of Information Request was based on the following
information:

Name: J Smith
Address: See email address
Email: [FOI #22151 email]
Telephone:
Request Details: A. Please can you point me to the section of the Freedom
of
Information Act 2000, and quote the relevant extract from it, which
makes you believe that one individual cannot submit more than one
FOI request to a public authority such as Westminster City Council
within a certain amount of time.

B. Please can you point me to the section of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, and quote the relevant extract from it, which
makes you believe that it is appropriate for Westminster City
Council to issue a refusal notice to multiple FOI requests
submitted by the same individual, on the grounds that the aggregate
cost involved to answer these multiple FOI requests exceeds the
"appropriate limit" of £450. To my knowledge, the limit of £450
applies to one FOI request at a time, not to multiple FOI requests
aggregated together and submitted by the same person.

FOI Reference Number: 4574
Target Completion Date: 26/11/2009

Please do not reply to this email.
This is an automatic response to your request, and replies to this message
will not be actioned.

If you need to contact Westminster City Council regarding your request,
please contact:

mailto:[Westminster City Council request email]
Tel:020 7641 3921

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Dear J Smith,

Thank you for your recent request submitted to the Council under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby you requested the following:

Please can you point me to the section of the Freedom of Information Act
2000, and quote the relevant extract from it, which makes you believe that
one individual cannot submit more than one FOI request to a public
authority such as Westminster City Council within a certain amount of
time.

Please can you point me to the section of the Freedom of Information Act
2000, and quote the relevant extract from it, which makes you believe that
it is appropriate for Westminster City Council to issue a refusal notice
to multiple FOI requests submitted by the same individual, on the grounds
that the aggregate cost involved to answer these multiple FOI requests
exceeds the "appropriate limit" of £450.

Response

Under Section 12 (4) (b) if two or more requests are made to a public
authority by one person then the estimated cost of complying with any of
the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying
with all of them.

Under section 5 (2) of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, requests can be aggregated
where (a) the two or more requests relate, to any extent, to the same or
similar information, and (b) those requests are received by the public
authority within any period of sixty consecutive working days.

I hope that this fulfils your request, and for further guidance on the
application of the Freedom of Information Act 200 please refer to the
Information Commissioner's website. I provide a link here for your
convenience:

[1]www.ico.gov.uk

Kindest regards,

Tanya Holden
Data Protection & FOI Officer
Knowledge and Information Management
Westminster City Council
101 Orchardson Street
London, NW8 8EA
Tel: 0207 641 6451
Fax: 0207 641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]
[2]www.westminster.gov.uk

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References

Visible links
1. file://www.ico.gov.uk
2. file://www.westminster.gov.uk