John O'Sullivan
1 December 2023
Post Office
100 Wood Street
London EC2V 9ER
request-1043314-
Your Ref:
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Classification:
Public
Dear John O'Sullivan,
Freedom of Information Request – FOI2023/00635
We are writing in response to your email received by Post Office Limited (“
Post
Office”) on 2 November, 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 in bold below:
“
Of the 800 or so SPM prosecuted by POL between 200 and 2014 how many had
their contracts terminated? How many were allowed to still work in branch as
either SPM or counter clerk?
Between 2000 and 2022 how many SPM who you recovered "losses" from were
permitted to still work in branch? How many SPM thus allowed had losses
greater that those prosecuted in 2000-2014?
What was the trigger figure to pursue a civil claim, £1k,£2k or £3k?
How many SPM asking for help balancing with minor shortfalls were encouraged
to keep trading, roll over and then prosecutes or taken to court for larger
"losses"?
What policy document show who could owe money as a criminal and be allowed
to carry on working and who had to have the contract terminated?”
Page 1 of 3
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.
We can confirm that Post Office may hold some information within the scope of
your request. However, your request is very complex and broad, and covers
information relating to Postmasters, going back 23 years. We have no central
repository where such information would be routinely collated, and stored. Carrying
out work to find the information would involve a significant cost and diversion of
resources from Post Office's other work.
It may be helpful to explain why your request would involve a significant cost. Even
if it took an hour to search through one Postmaster’s records, it would take
hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours to go through all the records for all
Postmasters. We would then have to do the necessary cross-referencing, analysis,
organisation and tallying of facts and figures to provide the information you are
seeking.
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 far exceed this limit and, as
such, we are refusing your request.
Whilst Post Office has a duty to provide advice and assistance under section 16 of
the FOIA, given the nature of your request, including its complexity and volume, we
are unable to advise on how you could reduce the scope regarding the information
you require about Postmasters, to bring it within the appropriate limit. If you were to
limit your request to naming specific Postmaster policies as per the last part of your
request, we may be able to assist further.
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, although we
cannot guarantee that this will be the case.
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.
Page 2 of 3
postoffice.co.uk
Classification
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.
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
Page 3 of 3
postoffice.co.uk
Classification
