Dear Sir or Madam,

I want to know how many hours civil servants and Members of
Parliament have spent attempting to avoid disclosure of information
requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. As well as
time spent by civil servants and MPs, I would like the information
to include any other advisers, for example barristers, who may have
been employed in efforts to avoid such disclosures. I would like to
know the amount of hours and the total cost to the Treasury
resulting from such avoidance between the Acts inception in law in
2000 and today: 26th March 2008.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Tyler

Dear Mr Tyler,

Thank you for your email.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is about access to recorded
information and not about asking questions that seek opinions or
calculation. You will appreciate that your request falls into the latter
category.

In addition numerous officials are involved to some extent in working on
FOI requests and it would be impossible to quantify the amount of time
officials across a Department spent on FOI. Furthermore the Cabinet
Office is only able to grant access to information that it holds. So,
for example, if you want information on Members of Parliament you should
address your request to the House of Commons' Freedom of Information
Team at: [email address]

With all this in mind can I suggest that you rephrase your request. If,
however, you would like us to process your request below formally we
will be happy to do so but I should warn you that it is almost certain
that you will simply get a more formal and expansive version of this
email.

I hope this helps.

I will put the matter on hold until I hear from you again.

Kind regards,

Joel McMillan
FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Tel: 020 7276 2473

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Dear Mr McMillan,

Thank you for your prompt reply relating the reasons why my request
may be declined. I understand now that the man-hours MPs and civil
servants have spent blocking FOI requests would be a separate
calculation making my request invalid. However, the total cost of
legal advice hired in the interests of blocking FOI requests is not
a matter of opinion nor would it require calculation, so I would
like to rephrase the question [please advise whether this should be
requested of the Treasury or of the Cabinet Office]:

"I would like to know the total cost to the Treasury resulting from
the hire of all legal advice in the interests of avoidance of
disclosure of information under the FOI Act 2000; between the Acts
inception in law in 2000 and today: 27th March 2008."

Yours sincerely,

Paul Tyler

Mr Tyler,

Your request should be redirected to HM Treasury FOI Team.

For your convenience I include its email address:

[email address]

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Joel McMillan
FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Tel: 020 7276 2473

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