Cost of 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: Graham
Address: See email address
Email: [FOI #19477 email]
Telephone:
Request Details:
Please provide the costs to the council of answering Freedom Of
Information Requests (FOI requests) during the following periods:

1 - April 2009 to September 2009 inclusive
2 - October 2008 to March 2009 inclusive
3 - April 2008 to September 2009 inclusive
4 - October 2007 to March 2008 inclusive

Please include staff costs, email costs, stationary costs, external
consultant fees, costs to verify the information requested etc in
your breakdown of the figures

FOI Reference Number: 4462
Target Completion Date: 03/11/2009

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 Graham

Thank you for your recent request to the Council. You've asked to be
provided with the following information:

Please provide the costs to the council of answering Freedom Of
Information Requests (FOI requests) during the following periods:

1 - April 2009 to September 2009 inclusive
2 - October 2008 to March 2009 inclusive
3 - April 2008 to September 2009 inclusive
4 - October 2007 to March 2008 inclusive

Please include staff costs, email costs, stationary costs, external
consultant fees, costs to verify the information requested etc in your
breakdown of the figures.

Request for clarification

As you are aware, the Freedom of Information Act gives a right of access
to the public for recorded information held by the Council. The council
does not breakdown separately the costs for each member of staff to use
its systems such as email and stationary as these are provided
corporately. Requests for information may also be responded to by any
member of staff and we do not record this centrally. We do however ask
departments to estimate the length of time taken to respond to a request
by the department as a whole, rather than individual staff members.

Can you therefore confirm that it would be acceptable to give the
estimated cost to the council (based on the government's £25 per hour as
set in the Fees Regulations) based on these departmental figures, and the
salary costs for the Corporate FOI team responsible for monitoring the
council's compliance with FOI?

In addition, in question 3, you have asked for information held between
April 2008 and September 2009. As this is the same as question 1, can I
confirm that this line should read April 2008 to September 2008 instead?

Once the additional clarification above is received, I will proceed with
your request and notify you of the new deadline for completion of your
request.

I look forward to hearing from you shortly,

Yours sincerely

Catherine Preston
Knowledge and Information Management Team
Information Services
Westminster City Council
101 Orchardson Street
London
NW8 8EA
Tel: 020 7641 3332
Fax: 020 7641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]

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Dear Graham

Thank you for your email clarifying the information you require. As per
the Act, the deadline for response is 20 working days form receipt i.e.
19th November 2009.

Yours sincerely

Catherine Preston
Knowledge and Information Management Team
Information Services
Westminster City Council
101 Orchardson Street
London
NW8 8EA
Tel: 020 7641 3332
Fax: 020 7641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]

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Dear Mr Graham

Thank you for your recent request to the Council. You asked to be provided
with the following information:

The budget for the Freedom of Information Team for the following periods:-

1 - April 2009 to September 2009 inclusive
2 - October 2008 to March 2009 inclusive
3 - April 2008 to September 2009 inclusive
4 - October 2007 to March 2008 inclusive

Response

The figures for each of the periods requested are shown below. These
figures comprise staff salary (70%) and service budget (30%). The
Knowledge and Information Management team's budget formed part of the
wider budget for Information Services and was not reported on separately
in terms of over/under spend. Therefore this information is not held for
the purposes of Section 1(4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Period Budget
1 - April 2009 to September 2009 inclusive £92, 695
2 - October 2008 to March 2009 inclusive
£58, 900
3 - April 2008 to September 2008 inclusive £58, 900
4 - October 2007 to March 2008 inclusive
£54, 150

I hope you find this information answers your query.

Yours sincerely

Catherine Preston
Knowledge and Information Management Team
Information Services
Westminster City Council
101 Orchardson Street
London
NW8 8EA
Tel: 020 7641 3332
Fax: 020 7641 2872
Email: [Westminster City Council request email]

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