Written question asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Ashton of Upholland (Labour) on Thursday, 2 November 2006.

Freedom of Information

Question: What is their estimate of the likely impact on the volume of requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to government departments for information about government policies, practices and procedures of the proposal to (a) include reading time, consideration time and consultation time in the calculation of the appropriate limit (£600) above which requests could be refused on cost grounds; and (b) to aggregate requests made by any legal person, or persons apparently acting in cohort, to each government department for the purposes of calculating the appropriate limit.

Answer: The Frontier Economics report, published by my department last month, shows that the total volume of requests across all government departments would reduce by 4 per cent if reading, consideration and consultation time was included in calculating the appropriate limit and by 8 per cent if non-similar requests were aggregated for purposes of calculating the appropriate limit. This assessment is based on an hourly rate of £25.

Secondary information