Orders not published online

Dear Mr Cross

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act, dated 14th June.

Firstly, I can confirm that the Privy Council Office does hold the
information you request. However, as currently drafted, your request
would be declined under Section 12 of the Act as the cost of locating,
retrieving and extracting the information requested in Part 1 of your
query would exceed the current cost and time limits.

The Privy Council Office does hold on a database a list of all Privy
Council Orders, by year, dating back to 1994. These lists include both
statutory and non-statutory Orders. A printed copy of these lists (from
July 1994) could be provided to you within the costs limits.

Prior to 1994, lists of Privy Council Orders dating back to 1613 were
either typed or hand-written and bound in large ledgers. Photocopying
this information would exceed the current cost and time limits by some
considerable margin. That said, copies of these earlier Order lists are
held by The National Archive, with very early lists (i.e. before TNA was
established) held by the National Library, and are therefore publicly
accessible.

I would be grateful, therefore, if you could consider whether you wish to
amend part 1 of your request to define a specified time frame for the list
of Orders in and of Council, to enable us to comply.

Yours sincerely

Ceri King

Ceri King
Head of Secretariat and Senior Clerk
Privy Council Office
2 Carlton Gardens
London SW1Y 5AA

Please note new telephone number:
020 7747 5300

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Dear Mr Cross

You wrote on 14th June to request the following information:

(1) A list of Orders in Council made at meetings of the Privy Council
prior to October 2000 that are not statutory instruments, and Orders of
Council that are not statutory instruments;

(2) Information on what "lists, tables, directories and databases of
orders are held by your office and data is held in these lists, tables
and database and in what form"; and

(3) A copy of our publication scheme.

I replied on 19th June to explain that the Privy Council Office did hold
the information requested concerning Orders in and of Council, but as
drafted, your request for that information would be declined under
Section 12 of the Act as the cost of locating, retrieving and extracting
the information requested in Part 1 of your query would exceed the
current cost and time limits. You replied on 19th June to re-define your
request to a copy of our database of all Privy Council Orders, by year,
dating back to 1994. You asked for this information to be provided
electronically, preferably as a .csv file, and this is now attached.

With regard to request (2), as my reply of 19th June explained, a list
of all Orders in and of Council dating back to 1994 is held on an Access
database (and a .csv version has been attached to this reply). Prior to
1994, lists of Privy Council Orders dating back to 1613 were either
typed or hand-written and bound in large ledgers. Copies of these
earlier Order lists are held by The National Archive, with very early
lists (i.e. before TNA was established) held by the National Library,
and are publicly accessible.

In terms of our publication scheme (request (3)), following a Machinery
of Government change in 2007, the Privy Council Office ceased to be a
Government Department in its own right and became an arms-length body of
the Ministry of Justice. At that point, it was decided that the PCO
would come within the Ministry of Justice's publication scheme which is
published on the Ministry's Website at
www.justice.gov.uk/publication-scheme.

I hope this is helpful. If you are unhappy with the result of your
request for information, you may request an internal review within two
calendar months of the date of this letter by writing to Access Rights
Unit, Ministry of Justice, Post Point 6.17, Selborne House, 54-60
Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QW.

If you remain unhappy with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF.

Ceri King
Head of Secretariat and Senior Clerk
Privy Council Office
2 Carlton Gardens
London SW1Y 5AA

Please note new telephone number:
020 7747 5300
www.privycouncil.gov.uk

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