Press Office output for week of Mon 9th Feb 2009

Dear Watching Them, Watching You

Thank you for your email dated 17 February 2009 in which you ask for:

"The full output of the Home Office Press Office, for the week starting
Monday 9th February 2009 i.e. all Press Releases, briefing notes, "lines
to take", notes or minutes of meetings or phone conversations with
journalists or media organisations, media packs, etc. sent by email, fax,
telex, letter post or by courier etc."

Your request has been handled in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 as a request for information.

We believe that some of the information that you have asked for is already
reasonably accessible to you. Press releases and can be accessed by
logging onto the Home Office website at [1]www.homeoffice.gov.uk

Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act exempts the Home Office from
complying with the duty to supply you with this information on the grounds
that it is already in the public domain. Should you have difficulties in
accessing this information by the means listed above please do not
hesitate to contact me again.

Under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the Home Office is not
obliged to comply with any information request where the prescribed costs
of supplying you with the information exceed £600. The £600 limit
applies to all central government departments and is based on work being
carried out at a rate of £25 per hour, which equates to 3½ days work per
request. Prescribed costs include those which cover the cost of locating
and retrieving information, and preparing our response to you. They do
not include considering whether any information is exempt from disclosure,
overheads such as heating or lighting, or disbursements such as
photocopying or postage.

We have estimated that the cost of answering your request would exceed the
£600 limit and we are therefore unable to comply with it. Although your
request would at present be too costly to answer, if you refine it so that
it falls under the cost limit we will consider it further. For example you
might want to limit your request to a particular topic or topics and/or
types of record.

You should however be aware that if you break your request down into a
series of smaller requests, we might, depending on the circumstances of
the case, decline to answer if the aggregated cost of complying exceeds
£600, as permitted by the Fees Regulations.

If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent
internal review of our handling of your request by submitting your
complaint within two months to the below address quoting reference 11261:

Information Rights Team
Information and Record Management Service
Home Office
4th Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Email: [email address]

During the independent review the department's handling of your
information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in
providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after
this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the
Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of
Information Act.

I realise that this reply may be a disappointment to you, but I look
forward to hearing from you again shortly should you wish to refine your
request.

Yours sincerely

Kate Williams

Home Office Press Office

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References

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1. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/