To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 27 February 2008, Official Report, column 1489W, on Northern Rock: freedom of information, (1) how many of the 31 freedom of information requests have been refused; and what were the grounds in each case; (195905)

HMT assesses FOI requests on their individual merits and summary data on the Department's cases are collated and published by MoJ on a quarterly basis. Since your previous request further FOI requests have been received.

Many of these requests seek extensive amounts of information and exceed the costs regime for processing FOI requests. In these cases, requestors have been invited to narrow their requests to bring them within the cost limit. Other requests seek information that has already been published or information that the Government intend to publish in the future; in six cases HMT has refused in full as the information sought comprised information provided to the Government in confidence, commercially sensitive information, and policy advice where the policy process is yet to conclude.