British Broadcasting Corporation Room BC2 A4 Broadcast Centre White City Wood Lane London W12 7TP
Telephone 020 8008 2882 Email xxx@xxx.xx.xx
Information Policy & Compliance
bbc.co.uk/foi
bbc.co.uk/privacy
Philip Rapier
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx 17 December 2015
Dear Mr Rapier,
Freedom of Information Act 2000 – RFI20152112
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act (‘the Act’) of 10 December
2015, seeking:
“Please provide the number of F .O.I. requests that have been declined under Section 43 (2) of the Freedom of
Information Act for the last three audited years available where the substantive reason given for decline by the BBC
is to preserve the commercial confidentiality of the Corporation's and others Employment and Recruitment Practices.
Please also provide the combined total number of all other requests the Coproration has declined in each relevant
year information has been provided for comparison purposes.”
I estimate that to deal with your request would take more than two and a half days; under section
12 of the Act, we are allowed to refuse to handle the request if it would exceed the appropriate
limit. The appropriate limit has been set by the Regulations (SI 2004/3244) as being £450
(equivalent to two and a half days work, at an hourly rate of £25). This is because we do not log
the substantive reason for citing section 43(2) on our FOI case management system.
From our records, we can see that we have cited section 43(2) in more than 200 cases over the
last three years. We would need to go back into each request and review these individually in
order to be able to answer your request fully.
If you would like to submit a narrowed request, we would be happy to consider it. For example
you may consider narrowing your request to a smaller time period.
You may request an internal review of our decision that your request exceeds the appropriate
limit. Please contact us at the address above, explaining what you would like us to review and
including your reference number. If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal
to the Information Commissioner. The contact details are: Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see
www.ico.org.uk. Yours sincerely,
Information Policy and Compliance
