Written question asked by John Hemming (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 8 December 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 10 December 2014. It was answered by David Lidington (Conservative) on Monday, 15 December 2014 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

British Overseas Territories

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2014 to Question 216865, what estimate he has made of the cost of obtaining the information requested; and on what basis that estimate was arrived at.

Answer: The guide to Parliamentary work (available on the Cabinet Office website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work and already in the Library of the House) sets out that Government departments can refuse to answer a question where the cost of responding to that question would be above the disproportionate cost threshold, which is currently set at £850. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office calculated that collating a response to the hon. Member’s question would exceed this threshold.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 217593
Session: 2014-15
Related items: British Overseas Territories
Friday, 5 December 2014
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Children Disclosure of information Costs British overseas territories Protection
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk