Information Access Team
Shared Services Directorate
2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF
Switchboard 020 7035 4848
E-mail: xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx Website:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Matthew Dodd
24 May 2012
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Our Ref: 22701
Dear Mr. Dodd,
Thank you for your follow up email of 04 May 2012 about your Freedom of
Information request. You asked:
1. The projected cost to the taxpayer (calculated or estimated -
whichever is available) of implementing the Government's
proposed new legislation regarding extending the use of
communications data by the police and security services.
2. The date, time, and recipient of every email sent by the Home
Secretary over the last 12 months.
3. The date, time, and sender of every email received by the Home
Secretary over the last 12 months.
4. The date, time, and recipient of every internet telephony call (e.g.
"Skype" call) made by the Home Secretary over the last 12
months.
5. The date, time, and sender of every internet telephony call (e.g.
"Skype" call) received by the Home Secretary over the last 12
months.
6. The date, time, and recipient of every internet "chat" (e.g.
"Facebook" or "Windows Live Messenger") initiated by the Home
Secretary over the last 12 months.
7. The date, time, and sender of every internet "chat" (e.g.
"Facebook" or "Windows Live Messenger") received by the
Home Secretary over the last 12 months.
8. The date, time, and internet address (URL) of every website
visited by the Home Secretary over the last 12 months.
Your request is being handled as a request for information under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000.
Under section 12(1) and (2) of the Act, the Home Office is not obliged to
comply with an information request where to do so would exceed the cost
limit.
We have estimated that the cost of meeting your request would exceed the
cost limit of £600 specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. We are therefore unable to
comply with your request.
The cost limit, in this case, would be exceeded due to the breadth of your
request. To identify and gather all of the information you have requested
would require us to conduct significant searches and run numerous reports.
We would subsequently need to gather and prepare the information in scope.
This would breach the cost limit.
The £600 limit is based on work being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour,
which equates to 24 hours of work per request. The cost of locating, retrieving
and extracting information and preparing the response can be included in the
costs for these purposes. The costs do not include considering whether any
information is exempt from disclosure, overheads such as heating or lighting,
or items such as photocopying or postage.
You may wish to revise your request in order to make it more likely to fall
within the cost limit. In this case, we will consider your request again. As the
main issue of cost surrounds the breadth of scope, you may wish to refine it
by significantly reducing the time frames stated, or by highlighting which of the
submitted questions is of most interest.
I should however mention that some of the information you have requested, if
still included within a revised request, would likely to be exempt under section
40 (personal information) of the FOI Act.
If any of the above is not clear, please do get in touch and we will try to clarify.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent
internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint
within two months to the address below, quoting reference 22701. If you ask
for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are
dissatisfied with the response.
Information Access Team
Home Office
Ground Floor, Seacole Building
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
As with any internal review the Department handles, your information request
will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this
response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have
a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by
section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
N. Dibsdale
Information Access Team