Dear Sir or Madam,

For each of the last six months for which the information can be
obtained, can you please detail:

1. The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct

2. The gross income received from Companies House Direct

3. The gross income received from WebCHeck

4. The gross income from sales of DVDrom products

5. The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches

6. The gross income received from any other "online" services or
products (i.e. not from "over the counter" visitors), broken down
in whatever way you normally classify these products or services.

Where any income received applies over a longer period (e.g. an
annual subscription), please either amortize that on a month by
month basis over the period, or detail such sums separately (i.e.:
Monthly DVD subscription fees: £xxx; New Annual DVD subscription
fees: £yyy).

Yours faithfully,

Richard

Dear Mr Jackson

Thanks you for your email. I will respond as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House
Tel 02920 380616

show quoted sections

08/07/2008 12:25 >>>
Dear Sir or Madam,

For each of the last six months for which the information can be
obtained, can you please detail:

1. The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct

2. The gross income received from Companies House Direct

3. The gross income received from WebCHeck

4. The gross income from sales of DVDrom products

5. The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches

6. The gross income received from any other "online" services or
products (i.e. not from "over the counter" visitors), broken down
in whatever way you normally classify these products or services.

Where any income received applies over a longer period (e.g. an
annual subscription), please either amortize that on a month by
month basis over the period, or detail such sums separately
(i.e.:
Monthly DVD subscription fees: £xxx; New Annual DVD subscription
fees: £yyy).

Yours faithfully,

Richard

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Jackson

I refer to your Freedom of Information Request in your email of 8 July
2008 -‘Income from Online Systems’

You asked for the following information:

“For each of the last six months for which the information can be
obtained, can you please detail:
1. The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct
2. The gross income received from Companies House Direct
3. The gross income received from WebCHeck
4. The gross income from sales of DVDrom products
5. The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches
6. The gross income received from any other "online" services or
products (i.e. not from "over the counter" visitors), broken down
in whatever way you normally classify these products or services.
Where any income received applies over a longer period (e.g. an
annual subscription), please either amortize that on a month by
month basis over the period, or detail such sums separately
(i.e.:
Monthly DVD subscription fees: £xxx; New Annual DVD subscription
fees: £yyy).”

I am unable to provide the information in the format you have requested
above as disclosure would be likely to prejudice Companies House’s
commercial interests and is therefore exempt under section 43(2) of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Companies House has also considered
the public interest test and concluded that there is not an overriding
public interest in providing this information. More information on this
legislation, the exemptions and the Code of Practice can be found on the
following website www.foi.gov.uk/.

However, you may be interested in the Companies House Annual Report
2007-2008 which does provide information on income. In Section 2(a) of
the report you will find details of ‘segmental reporting’ which
includes income from searches under the heading ‘Dissemination
activities’. I have attached the relevant extract from this report.
If you would like the entire Annual Report for 2007 - 2008 please let me
have your postal address and I can send you a hard copy. Alternatively
the report will be published shortly on our website. Companies House
Annual Reports are published on the Companies House website
www.companieshouse.gov.uk (from the home page go to ‘about us’>
‘Library’ and > ‘Corporate Documents’ ).

I appreciate that the above information does not fully meet your
enquiry but I hope that the information in this email and on the
Companies House website will be useful to you. If you have any queries
please contact me quoting the reference number above.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to
your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our
response, you should write to me, within two calendar months of the date
of this letter, and I will ensure that it is forwarded to a senior
member of Companies House who has had no previous involvement in this
case and they will undertake the review.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by us. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or copy it. You must not copy, disseminate or otherwise distribute or publish this message, except for the purposes for which this message is intended, without our consent.

Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when e-mailing us.

For company information, guidance and how to file documents online,
please see our website www.companieshouse.gov.uk.

This message has been scanned for viruses by Hosted Security, a service from Websense.

Dear Judith,

Thank you for this response. In it you make reference to an
attachment, but you do not seem to have actually attached that.

In addition I would ask for a review of this matter. I do not
believe that sufficient consideration has been given to the issues
involved here (or, if they have, that this has not been conveyed).
I would note the guidance in this area which states:

"a simple assertion by an individual or body that there would be
prejudice to his or its interests is not sufficient. The assertion
must be supported by reasoned argument, and where practicable by
empirical evidence."

I would also note that the default position is meant to be that the
public interest is _always_ for disclosure, unless there are
compelling reasons why not. Again you have provided no details of
why you do not believe that applies here, beyond a blanket
statement.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

Dear Mr Jackson

I refer to your Freedom of Information Request in your email of 8 July
2008 –‘Income from Online Systems’

You asked for the following information:

“For each of the last six months for which the information can be
obtained, can you please detail:
1. The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct
2. The gross income received from Companies House Direct
3. The gross income received from WebCHeck
4. The gross income from sales of DVDrom products
5. The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches
6. The gross income received from any other "online" services or
products (i.e. not from "over the counter" visitors), broken down
in whatever way you normally classify these products or services.
Where any income received applies over a longer period (e.g. an
annual subscription), please either amortize that on a month by
month basis over the period, or detail such sums separately
(i.e.:
Monthly DVD subscription fees: £xxx; New Annual DVD subscription
fees: £yyy).”

I am unable to provide the information in the format you have requested
above as disclosure would be likely to prejudice Companies House’s
commercial interests and is therefore exempt under section 43(2) of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Companies House has also considered
the public interest test and concluded that there is not an overriding
public interest in providing this information. More information on this
legislation, the exemptions and the Code of Practice can be found on the
following website www.foi.gov.uk/.

However, you may be interested in the Companies House Annual Report
2007-2008 which does provide information on income. In Section 2(a) of
the report you will find details of ‘segmental reporting’ which includes
income from searches under the heading ‘Dissemination activities’. I
have attached the relevant extract from this report. If you would like
the entire Annual Report for 2007 – 2008 please let me have your postal
address and I can send you a hard copy. Alternatively the report will
be published shortly on our website. Companies House Annual Reports are
published on the Companies House website www.companieshouse.gov.uk (
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ ) (from the home page go to ‘about
us’> ‘Library’ and > ‘Corporate Documents’ ).

I appreciate that the above information does not fully meet your
enquiry but I hope that the information in this email and on the
Companies House website will be useful to you. If you have any queries
please contact me quoting the reference number above.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to
your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our
response, you should write to me, within two calendar months of the date
of this letter, and I will ensure that it is forwarded to a senior
member of Companies House who has had no previous involvement in this
case and they will undertake the review.

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by us. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or copy it. You must not copy, disseminate or otherwise distribute or publish this message, except for the purposes for which this message is intended, without our consent.

Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when e-mailing us.

For company information, guidance and how to file documents online,
please see our website www.companieshouse.gov.uk.

This message has been scanned for viruses by Hosted Security, a service from Websense.

Dear Judith,

I have now received the version of your mail with the attachment:
thank you for that.

I would also now ask that the internal review consider, for each
piece of information that I have requested, how the release of that
information is prejudicial to its Commercial Interests compared to
the information that is already released.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

Dear Mr Jackson

My apologies for the omission. I will be in touch again regarding the issues you have raised below.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Jackson

Further to your emails of 6 August 2008, regarding the reasons behind
our decision not to disclose information regarding statistics and income
from online systems.

As part of the review process we have re-considered the scope of the
freedom of information exemptions and although we are still of the
opinion that these are products that exist in a commercial market place
we have decided to release the information.

The figures that are available are for the financial year 2007/08:

The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct - 19,000 accounts

The gross income received from Companies House Direct - £9.2 million

The gross income received from WebCHeck - £1.4 million

The gross income from sales of DVD Rom products -
DVD Rom sold as a one off product - £26,940
DVD Rom annual subscriptions - £23,450

The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches - £1120

The above categories cover all the online services available. Details
of the Companies House prices for services, including annual
subscription fees, are available on the Companies House website at
www.companieshouse.gov.uk

I believe that the above information has now fully met your request but
if you think that this is not the case then please let me know.

I would again remind you that if you are not happy with the outcome of
your request or with the way it has been handled you have the right to
appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team
Companies House

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or copy it. You must not copy, disseminate or otherwise distribute or publish this message, except for the purposes for which this message is intended, without our consent.

Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when e-mailing us.

For company information, guidance and how to file documents online,
please see our website www.companieshouse.gov.uk.

This message has been scanned for viruses by Hosted Security, a service from Websense.

Dear Judith,

Thank you for deciding to release this information.

However it is not quite what I asked for, as I asked for
month-by-month figures rather than annual ones.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

Dear Mr Jackson

Further to your email on 27 August 2008, please accept my apologies for
not providing the figures in the format you originally requested. This
information is normally collected for internal purposes only and as such
we simply use the annual figure for management purposes. The figures
for the last financial year were the most accessible and so I sent you
these, again my apologies.

However, I have now obtained the figures for the last six months
(January 2008 to June 2008) as per your original request on 8 July 2008.

1. The number of subscribers to Companies House Direct
Jan 2008: 18,795
Feb 2008: 19,007
March 2008: 19,206
April 2008: 19,352
May 2008: 19,432
June 2008: 19,459

2. The gross income received from Companies House Direct
Jan 2008: £864,659.00
Feb 2008: £824,332.00
March 2008: £766,965.00
April 2008: £874,771.00
May 2008: £755,837.00
June 2008: £761,083.00

3. The gross income received from WebCHeck
Jan 2008: £146,652.00
Feb 2008: £121,197.00
March 2008: £112,337.00
April 2008: £144,249.50
May 2008: £92,618.00
June 2008: £121,872.00

4. The gross income from sales of DVD Rom products
Jan 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2900.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £4050.00
Feb 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2725.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £5520.00
March 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2800.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £2760.00
April 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2825.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £6630.00
May 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2825.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £3600.00
June 2008: DVD Rom Annual subscriptions - £2800.00, DVD Rom one off
products - £4290.00

5. The gross income received from creating bespoke IT searches
Jan 2008: £160.00
Feb 2008: £0.00
March 2008: £0.00
April 2008: £160.00
May 2008: £0.00
June 2008: £267.00

6. The gross income received from any other "online" services or
products (i.e. not from "over the counter" visitors), broken down
in whatever way you normally classify these products or services.
As confirmed in my email to you on 20 August 2008, the categories in 1
to 4 above cover all the online services available through Companies
House.

I hope that I have now provided all the information you require and
that I have fully answered your freedom of information enquiry, but if
you have any queries about this email, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to
your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our
response, you should write to me, within two calendar months of the date
of this email, and I will ensure that it is forwarded to a senior member
of Companies House who has had no previous involvement in this case and
they will undertake the review. If you are not content with the outcome
your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner
for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you
have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by us. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Judith Chainey
Information Rights Team

This message and any attachments are intended for the persons named as addressees only and may contain confidential information. In addition they may be protected by copyright.

If you receive it in error, notify us, delete it and do not make use of or copy it. You must not copy, disseminate or otherwise distribute or publish this message, except for the purposes for which this message is intended, without our consent.

Please note that this e-mail has been created in the knowledge that Internet e-mail is not a 100% secure communications medium. We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when e-mailing us.

For company information, guidance and how to file documents online,
please see our website www.companieshouse.gov.uk.

This message has been scanned for viruses by Hosted Security, a service from Websense.