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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER BY DEPUTY P.D. McLINTON OF ST. SAVIOUR ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 2nd JUNE 2015
Question
Will the Chief Minister –
- provide the total number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests that have been received to the end of April 2015?
- inform members how much has been spent on FOI since the Assembly decided to implement the Law and will he also advise the number and cost of providing answers to FOI requests separately from the public and the media?
- state whether departments will be receiving extra resources in the future to deal with FOI requests or whether they will have to divert resources away from providing other services to the public to deal with requests?
Answer
- 284 FOI requests were received to the end of April 2015.
- The spending detailed below does not represent the full cost of FOI. It covers set-up costs, the central FOI team and extra staff employed throughout the organisation to support departments.
The spending does not include the time other departmental staff spend researching and answering the questions. That cost is absorbed into the running of departments as staff do this work alongside business as usual.
Spending to date
2012
2013
2014
2015 (to April 30)
2015 (forecast May 1 to Dec 31) Total projected programme spend
£22,200 £111,955 £1,115,915 £489,780
£1,010,220 £2,825,970
Requester Type | Percentage of Requests | Number of Requests |
Charity | 1% | 4 |
Law Firm | 1% | 3 |
Media | 33% | 94 |
Individual | 59% | 167 |
Commercial/Business | 6% | 16 |
Total | 100% | 284 |
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FOI costs are not tracked by the type of requester, so it is not possible to provide the cost of providing answers for the public as compared to the media.
- All FOI funding currently ends at the end of 2015. After that, funding is dependent on proposals in the Medium Term Financial Plan.
Departmental staff will continue to be responsible for researching and answering FOI requests in addition to carrying out their daily duties.