Communities and Local Government
A selection of images representing communities.
Direct contact 020 7944 4400- contactus@communities.gov.uk
Fees
Most requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) are free. You might be asked to pay a small amount for making photocopies or postage.
If we think it will cost us more than £600 to find the information and prepare it for release, we can turn down your request, or ask you to narrow it down.
The Data Protection Act (DPA) fees are slightly different. These can be charged up to a maximum of £10 in most cases, or up to £50 for information held in manual (i.e. non-electronic) medical records. Checking what information is held about you by credit reference agencies costs £2.
Fee limits under the FOIA and EIRs
There are two types of fees that can be charged:
- Prescribed costs - which cover finding, sorting or editing the material. A standard hourly rate of £25 per person is used to estimate these. We will always provide information free of charge where the estimated cost of retrieving and collating the material requested is less than £600
- Disbursements - which cover things like printing, photocopying or postage. These fees may be charged in all cases, regardless of whether the fee limit for the prescribed costs (£600) is reached. No charge will be made for disbursements where the cost is below £25
If the prescribed costs are over £600 we will let you know, and try to help you narrow down the request so that a fee may not be applicable. If you do not wish to do this, we may refuse to supply the information or charge you the full fee.
Fees notice
If you need to pay a fee, we will send you a 'fees notice' letting you know the amount you will need to pay before we can provide the information you want. If you do not pay the fee within three months, we will contact you to let you know that your request has lapsed. But if you pay the fee we will then gather the information and provide it, subject to any relevant exemptions.
The 20-day 'clock' stops when a fee notice is issued and only starts again once the fee is received.
