When will there is a charge for information?

If the council can provide the information you have requested taking not more than two and a half days of staff time, which is equivalent to a total cost of £450 using the Government’s hourly rate of £25 per hour as set out in the regulations, there will be no charge for staff time.

The only other charge that might apply in this case is for the cost of photocopying and postage (disbursements) as explained below.

The staff costs taken into account in calculating the £450 include the time involved in:

• Identifying that the council holds the information
• Retrieving the information
• Extracting the information including reading, summarising or editing the information.

If it is estimated on receiving the request that it will take longer than two and a half days staff time and cost more than £450 to comply with the request because it involves a lot of information then the council will calculate the estimated time and other disbursements such as:

• Putting the information into your required format
• Photocopying and printing
• Postage and other forms of communication
• Translation when this has to be done specially.

Under the Act the council can refuse to meet requests costing above £450 but Tower Hamlets has decided to allow the applicant to have the option of paying the fee to receive the information.

The council will write to you before doing anything more explaining the fee in a Fees Notice and asking whether you want to pay to receive the information or whether you can refine your request to make it less onerous to meet and bring the cost below the £450 limit. The Fees Notice will explain how to pay the fee.

After receiving the Fees Notice you will have three months to decide whether to pay the charge during which time the council will do nothing further and the twenty working days target for meeting requests is suspended. It will start again when we receive your fee.

Many requests will not take more than two and a half days to fulfil and no fee for staff time will apply. However, there may still be some costs (disbursements) associated with communicating the information, these are the costs listed above.

The council only charges for these disbursements when they amount to more than £10 in total. Photocopying is charged at 10p per page , other items are charged at actual costs. We do not charge for staff time involved in communicating the information to you.

Other sources of information

The fees regulations and full guidance are available on the Department of Constitutional Affairs website.

The council’s FOI manager can be contacted on foi@towerhamlets.gov.uk.