One is enough
How many FOI requests does it take to be considered a serial requestor assessed as costing central government up to £50,000 a year?
The answer in some cases is just one. Or at any rate it is according to Frontier Economics, the economic consultancy commissioned by the Department for Constitutional Affairs last year to assess the cost of FOI.
I have written previously about some of the considerable methodological doubts affecting the on the cost of FOI.
I was particularly interested in Table 5 of this report, which estimates the annual cost to central government of journalists' use of FOI as follows:
Media organisation - Requests - Cost
91Èȱ¬ - 750 to 2,000 - £300,000 to £1,000,000
The Guardian - 500 to 700 - £250,000 to £350,000
Evening Standard - 300 to 400 - £150,000 to £200,000
Mail on Sunday - 50 to 100 - £25,000 to £50,000
The Sunday Times - 50 to 100 - £25,000 to £50,000
Other journalists - 300 to 400 - £150,000 to £200,000
These figures are based on a one-week sample extrapolated to a whole year. I have also discussed before why I believe the Frontier Economics estimates for the 91Èȱ¬ are grossly exaggerated and methodologically flawed. But I wondered how many requests had actually been made by the other media organisations in the week specified.
And the DCA have today sent me the answers in a response to an FOI request I put to them:
Guardian - 11
Evening Standard - 5
Mail on Sunday - 1
Sunday Times – 1
All other identified media outlets and journalists except the 91Èȱ¬ – 10
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£50,000?
Martin, I think it was it the "Butch cassidy and the Sundance Kid" film line I am paraphrasing?
Well if they just paid me just £5,000 - I would stop writing my FOI requests.
"considerable methodological doubts"?
Downright shonky more like it, esp. when they seem to apply a flat Pounds 500 as a cost estimate. That would apply even in their eyes to your one line question on the number of requests ands the five line response.
Time to get Jack Straw to ask the next Parliamentary delegation to NZ to look at our Official Information Act in practice.
P.