NHDC charge for Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests in line with the national FOI fees regulations.
- If the time taken to fulfil the FOI request takes under 18 hours of staff time there will be no charge other than for disbursements (see below).
- If the time taken to fulfil the FOI request is likely to exceed 18 hours of staff time, the Council has the right to charge a fee.
- Fees are set by the “Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004” At the current time staff time is calculated at £25 per hour. Therefore at 18 hours the fee would be £450.
- However, where possible, we will assist the applicant to refine the request and determine what might be achieved within the £450 limit. If this is not possible, NHDC will issue a Fees Notice detailing the full cost of the request. The request will not be progressed until the fees have been paid. The time taken to pay the fees does not count as part of the 20 working day target for responding to requests.
- Disbursements (photocopying, copying to different media, postage etc) will be free up to £10. Above this, we will charge the full costs
Where an Environmental Information Regulation request is likely to take over 18 hours, we are likely to charge for staff time on the same basis as FOI, i.e at £25 per hour. This is in addition to any fees identified in departmental fee structures.