Question reference: S4W-10638
- Asked by: Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 29 October 2012
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Current status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 16 November 2012
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4F-00858 by Alex Salmond on 20 September 2012, (Official Report, c. 11704), how much it has spent in dealing with the freedom of information (FOI) requests by the anonymous submitter referred to by the First Minister and what the average cost of dealing with FOI requests has been since 2007.
Answer
The report of the Scottish Government’s FOI Costing Exercise 2012, which was published on 14 November, shows that the average cost to the Scottish Government of responding an FOI request is £231, the cost of an internal review is £417, and an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner costs £1,250. The previous cost exercise, carried out by this Government in 2010, is published on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Information/FOI/FOICostReport.
Our records show that the anonymous requester referred to by the First Minister has submitted 13.5 per cent of all of the requests received by the Scottish Government between the start of the summer recess on 29 June and 6 November 2012. Based on the results of the costing exercise, the costs to the government are:
85 Requests £ 19,635
6 Requests for internal review £ 2,502
1 Appeal to the Commissioner £ 1,250
Total £ 23,387