Tim Bush
Date
17 May 2024
Post Office
100 Wood Street
request-1120197-
London EC2V 9ER
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Your Ref:
Classification:
Public
Dear Tim Bush,
Freedom of Information Request – FOI2024/00632
We are writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited (“
Post
Office”) on 18 April, which has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (“
FOIA”).
In your email you have requested the information shown verbatim in bold below:
“
I request the following information.
The period from the first to the most recent POL Freedom of Information Act
requests for which Mr Rodric Wil iams handled or oversaw such Freedom of
Information Act requests and how many such requests that entailed.”
We want to be as open as possible in answering requests for information. The FOIA
itself also requires us to provide reasonable advice and assistance to those seeking
to make such a request. Unfortunately, your request is very broad and could cover a
breadth of information, potentially going back many years. Gathering it together
would therefore involve a significant cost and diversion of resources from the
organisation's other work.
It may be helpful to explain why your request would involve a significant cost. The
Information Rights Team manage the process of handling and responding to FOIA
requests, with the assistance of colleagues within the business areas who have an
understanding of the information we hold. We can confirm that as Mr Rodric
Williams does not work in the Information Rights Team, he does not handle or
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Post Office Limited is registered in England and Wales. Registered No. 2154540.
Registered Office 100 Wood Street, London WC2V 7ER
postoffice.co.uk
Post Office and the Post Office logo are registered trade marks of Post Office Limited.
oversee any FOIA requests. It is, however, likely that Mr Williams has assisted the
Information Rights Team on occasions, in order to locate information potentially
within scope of an information request.
Since 1 January 2018, Post Office have received over 1,400 FOIA requests and to
determine whether Mr Williams had any such involvement in an information request
we would have to carry out a manual review of each casework file. Even if it were
possible to review each case file in 10 minutes (a conservative time estimate), this
would stil take in excess of 233 hours. Please note, this does not include cases
received by Post Office before 2018.
Section 12(1) of the FOIA allows Post Office to refuse a request for information if we
estimate that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate
fees limit, which currently stands at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one
person spending 18 hours in determining whether we hold the information, and in
locating, retrieving and extracting the information. On the basis of our estimates, we
consider that the cost would exceed this limit and, as such, we are refusing your
request.
In accordance with our section 16 FOIA obligation to advise and assist you to
reframe your request, if you were to make a new request for a narrower category of
information, it may be that we could comply with that request within the appropriate
limit. The best way we can help you is to ask you to consider narrowing down your
request to focus more clearly on the precise information you are seeking. However,
as explained above, given the Information Rights Team oversee and manage FOIA
requests, we cannot suggest a way to narrow your request further.
Please note that if you modify your request, we will handle it as a new request and
so the 20-working-day deadline for responding to requests would then commence
from the date that we receive the modified request and may also be subject to the
cost limit or other FOI exemptions.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of this response, you do have a right to
request an internal review. You can do this by writing to the address above within 40
working days of receipt of this response stating your reasons for your internal review
request or alternatively, by emailing
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xx.xx.
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postoffice.co.uk
Classification
If, having requested an internal review by Post Office, you are still not satisfied with
our response you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
www.ico.org.uk/foicomplaints
Yours sincerely,
Information Rights Team
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xx.xx
https://corporate.postoffice.co.uk/en/governance/access-to-information/access-to-
information/
Post Office Limited is committed to protecting your privacy, information about
how we do this can be found on our website at www.postoffice.co.uk/privacy
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postoffice.co.uk
Classification
