Defence
Freedom of Information
MOD’s Charging Policy For Information Provided Under Its Publication Scheme and The Freedom of Information Act 2000
Information Provided Under the Publication Scheme
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) makes information available free of charge to the greatest extent possible. This information is primarily accessible via its main website (http://www.mod.uk) or via the MOD Publication Scheme and Disclosure Log. However, it should be noted that charges may apply to some items within the Publication Scheme and these are indicated as "Charge may apply".
If an information item in the Publication Scheme indicates that information is available to view in situ, this access will be provided free of charge. The Scheme will specify the address of the building that holds the information and any other action needed to arrange access. A charge may be made for actual disbursements incurred (photocopying, postage and packaging, the costs directly incurred as a result of viewing information) but this will be specified at the time of the request and will be payable in advance of the information being provided.
Publication Scheme - Information in hardcopy
Members of the public who do not have access to the Internet may ask for information that is published electronically in the Publication Scheme to be provided in hard copy. A single print-out from the relevant website page(s) can be provided by post by initial contact with the MOD FOI team. However, requests for multiple print-outs or for archived copies of documents which are no longer available on the web, may attract a charge for the cost of retrieval, photocopying, postage etc. Applicants will be informed of this at the time of the request. The charge will be payable in advance.
Other information (e.g. hardcopies, or in some cases CD Rom, video or other medium) will be subject to a charge as indicated in the Publication Scheme. The relevant charge will be specified at the time of your request and this will be payable in advance.
See External Links (ICO Charging for Information in a Publication Scheme)
Charging for Information provided under the Freedom of Information Act
Under the Fees Regulations public authorities may charge for information, if the cost of answering a request for information would exceed an "appropriate limit". However, the MOD, along with other central Government Departments, has a policy of not charging if compliance exceeds the limit. Instead the section 12 exemption in the Act will be applied which exempts MOD from its obligation to provide the information. The appropriate limit for government departments such as the MOD (including the Armed Forces and the MOD Police) is £600 and £450 for other public authorities (as listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the FOIA) such as Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) associated with the MOD.
Subject to no other exemptions applying, information will only be provided under the Act where the cost of providing it is calculated to be less than £600 (or £450) after applying the hourly staff cost rate to the activities mentioned below.
Under the terms of the Fees Regulations, all public authorities must estimate the cost of effort involved in answering a request on the basis that staff time to be calculated at the rate of £25 per person per hour. Using the appropriate limit of £600, this equates to 24 hours (3½ days) of work. The activities which may be counted when calculating the cost of effort are limited to the following:
- determining whether information relevant to the request is held
- locating the information, or a document containing it
- retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and
- extracting the information from a document containing it
providing the total cost of this work (calculated in accordance with the Fees regulations) does not exceed the appropriate limit, and subject to the application of any relevant exemptions in the Act, information is provided free of charge. If processing a request would exceed the appropriate limit, the MOD will invite the applicant to narrow down the request to bring it within the appropriate limit. If this cannot be done to the satisfaction of the applicant it is likely that the request will be refused on the basis of the s12 exemption because compliance exceeds the appropriate limit.
If, very exceptionally the MOD does decide to answer a request that exceeds the appropriate limit, a Fees Notice which sets out the details of the proposed fee and relevant calculations relating to the fee will be issued in writing. The MOD is not obliged to respond to the request unless the fee is paid within three months of the Fee Notice being sent.
In certain situations, two or more requests received in MOD can be aggregated for the purposes of estimating whether the appropriate limit would be exceeded and based on the following circumstances:
- if they are from the same person, or from 'different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign'
- if they are for the same or similar information
- if they have been received within a space of 60 consecutive working days
Page rated 68 times
