Cost of Processing Freedom of Information

Thank you for your information request.

If you have submitted a request for non-personal recorded information, it
will be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) or the
Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The EIR is broadly the
same as the FOIA but covers requests about the environment and
environmental matters.

You will receive a response within 20 working days in line with the
FOIA/EIR.  If the request will take any longer to process (e.g., if we
need to consult third parties or seek clarification from you) we will let
you know.

More details about FOIA/EIR requests can be found at

[1]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/foi

You may wish to know that you can submit requests online through our
e-form which is available via the link above.

If you wish to request information that is your own (or someone else’s)
personal data, it will be dealt with as a Subject Access Request (SAR) and
will be answered within one month. More details about SAR requests can be
found at

[2]www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dataprotection

For information on how we process your personal data please see our
information requests [3]privacy notice.

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www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/data-protection

References

Visible links
1. http://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/foi
2. http://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/dataprot...
3. https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/your-co...

Dear Liam,

Information Request – reference no. DC7198

Thank you for your information request dated 7^th March, which has been
dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Our response to your request is as follows:

Please note that the answers to the first three questions relate solely to
the Information Compliance Team, who are responsible for handling and
monitoring the council’s information requests, and not staff in other
departments who provide the requested information.

For the last 3 tax year's (23/22, 22/21, 21/20) please provide the total
cost of:

•            Total number of staff hired with responsibility for freedom
of information requests, (full time equivalent).

2020/21 (as at 31/03/2021) – 2.5 FTE

2021/22 (as at 31/03/2022) – 2 FTE

2022/23 (as at 31/03/2023) – 1.9 FTE

For all three years, all staff in question were in roles that handle both
Freedom of Information requests and Data Protection, therefore these roles
do not spend all their time on Freedom of Information requests.

•            Total salary costs for staff with responsibility for freedom
of information requests.

The salary banding for this role (for the 2022/23 financial year) was
£23,893-£25,119.

•            Total for all other costs associated with handling freedom of
information requests.

We are unable to quantify any ‘other costs’ associated with handling
requests.

•            Total number of freedom of information requests received, and
total number responded with the requested information.

2020/21 – total received: 1503, total granted: 1183

2021/22 – total received: 1452, total granted: 1136

2022/23 – total received: 1146, total granted: 882

Please note that these figures include both Freedom of Information
requests and Environmental Information Regulations requests. The ‘total
granted’ figures relate to requests where all or some of the requested
information was disclosed.

You may wish to know that you can submit information requests to Dorset
Council via our e-form at
[1]https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/your-co....

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you may ask
for an internal review within 40 working days of this response. Please
fill in our [2]online form if you wish to request a review. If you are not
content with the outcome of the internal review, you then have the right
to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision – the
Information Commissioner can be contacted via [3]their website.

For information on how we process your personal data please see our
information requests [4]privacy notice.

Most of the information we provide is subject to copyright protection. You
are free to use the information for your own non-commercial research or
private study. Unless we have indicated otherwise, you may also use
information created by Dorset Council for certain other purposes under the
terms of the Open Government Licence [5]here. For information not created
by Dorset Council, other uses will require the copyright owner’s
permission. 

Yours sincerely,

Natalie Campbell
Information Compliance Officer
Assurance [6][IMG]
Dorset Council
[7]dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

[8][IMG] [9][IMG] [10][IMG]

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