On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 8:56 PM, Mark Goodge <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> I predict that it will be refused, on DPA and/or cost grounds. The
> sender/recipient lines will identify individuals. As a general rule, emails
> released under FOI either are purely internal, or have identifiers of
> external senders/recipients redacted. The content of several individual
> emails will themselves be subject to DPA if they refer to identifiable
> individuals. And redacting a lot of emails will certainly be somthing that
> the cost can be applied to.
>
> On a more general note, I think this kind of fishing expedition is precisely
> the sort of thing that brings FOI into disrepute and increases the
> probability of legislative changes to further restrict its scope.

very much agree with your general point on the undesirability of
fishing expeditions etc.

Out of curiosity  though: if I'm not completely mistaken, costs can
only be applied to retrieving and collating information, but not to
considering exemptions and applying redactions. In that case I can't
quite see how they could refuse on cost grounds. (DPA still holds
though)
 Am I wrong on this? (Arguably it would be desirable to consider the
cost of redactions in calculating the cost for the cost threshold
exemption, but I thought they weren't included at present)

Thoughts?

Michael

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