Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the assumed cost of an hour of staff time is for assessing the disproportionate cost threshold for written parliamentary questions; what the assumed hourly cost was of responding to (a) written parliamentary questions and (b) freedom of information requests in each year since 2000; and what methodology his Department uses to estimate these costs.

As was the case under the previous administration, the methodology for assessing the disproportionate cost threshold for written parliamentary questions is available in the Guide to Parliamentary Work, at paragraphs 218-220: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673372f9c10bb403d96bf2f8/Guide_to_Parliamentary_Work.pdf

In respect of Freedom of Information requests, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows public authorities to refuse to deal with any requests where they estimate that responding to the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”, known as the “cost limit”. If a public authority calculates that responding to a request will take it over the appropriate limit it is not obliged to provide a substantive response. The cost limit is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour and since 2004 has been set at £600 for central government departments and £450 for other public authorities.