Comeback decision complaints

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Dear Mrs French

Please find attached our response to your request for information.

Yours sincerely,

Louise Rae

Information Analyst

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received your email. Please do not reply to this.

If your email to us was a new complaint, we will register it and will
acknowledge it in writing within the next three working days. We will also
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Dear Mrs French

I refer to your request for a review of the handling of your request for
information, reference 20060354.

As you have not specified which part of the decision you disagree with, I
have assumed you disagree with all aspects of it. I will now address each
of these in turn.

1) Decision to withhold challenge letters received from complainants

This decision was based mainly on the Scottish Information Commissioner's
Decision reference 080/2008, Mr Frank French and SPSO. A very thorough
explanation was given in the original response letter, including the
reasoning behind applying the principles of the Commissioner's decision to
this particular request. There is nothing further I can add to explain
this decision other than to confirm I believe it to be sound.

2) Decision to redact challenge response letters in line with section
26(a) of FOISA (with respect to section 19 of SPSOA), and section
38(1)(b) of FOISA

Your original request asked for the information to be redacted in terms of
sections 26(a) and 38(1)(b) of FOISA. Our decision on how to apply these
exemptions was based mainly on the Scottish Information Commissioner's
Decision reference 080/2008, Mr Frank French and SPSO. Once again the
reasoning behind applying the same principles to this request is fully
explained in the original decision letter and as such, I have nothing
further to add.

3) Decision to refuse to process requests on the grounds of excessive
costs

Given the volume of information requested and the extent of redaction that
we determined to be required, I consider that it was reasonable for us to
consider the impact the processing of the request would have on the
resources of this office. Once the required resources had been estimated,
careful consideration was given to Annex 3 of The Scottish Ministers' Code
of Practice on the Discharge of Functions by Public Authorities under the
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the Section 60 Code). Section
12 of FOISA states that "Section 1(1) does not oblige a Scottish public
authority to comply with a request for information if the authority
estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed such
amount as may be prescribed in regulations made by the Scottish
Ministers". Annex 3 of the Section 60 Code states that "a cap is placed
on costs in that the authority is relieved of the obligation to comply at
all with the request for information if projected costs are above an
amount specified by Scottish Ministers. This is referred to in the
regulations as the prescribed amount and is currently £600". This is
further confirmed in The Freedom of Information (Fees for Required
Disclosure) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 which state "The amount prescribed
for the purposes of section 12(1) of the Act (excessive cost of
compliance) is £600".

Based on the guidance contained in Annex 3 of the Section 60 Code, we
estimated that the cost of processing your request and supplying the
requested information would exceed £600 and therefore that we were under
no obligation to comply with your request. Details of how we estimated the
costs involved in processing your request were given in the original
decision letter and there is nothing further to add on that point, other
than to confirm we are entitled to refuse to comply with your request on
the grounds of excessive cost, and that the costs have been estimated
carefully and fairly, based on the relevant guidance and regulations.

I would like to further confirm that the decision to refuse to provide the
requested information was based entirely on the resources required to
comply with the request and was in no way influenced by the nature of your
request, or the nature of the information requested.

YOUR RIGHT OF APPEAL

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of any review carried out by the
SPSO, you have a right under FOISA to appeal to the Scottish Information
Commissioner. If you wish to do so, you must appeal to the Commissioner
within six months following the date of receipt of this review notice.
The Commissioner's contact details are as follows:

The Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St Andrews

KY16 9DS

Email: [email address]

Tel: 01334 464610

Yours sincerely,

David Robb

Dierctor of Policy and Development

Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

4 Melville Street Edinburgh EH3 7NS

tel 0800 377 7330 fax 0800 377 7331

email [1][Scottish Public Services Ombudsman request email]

web [2]http://www.spso.org.uk

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