To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on responding to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) January to July 2008. (251759)

The information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

An assessment of the cost of freedom of information within Government can be found in Frontier Economics 2006 report “Independent Review of the Freedom of Information Act”. A copy of this report is available in the House of Commons Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff of her Department are specifically employed to manage freedom of information requests. (251761)

Across the Home Office and its agencies, 10 staff deal exclusively with freedom of information requests, four of whom are employed on a part-time basis. A further 17 staff have managed freedom of information requests as a substantial part of their role. Overall, the equivalent of 19.6 full-time posts manage freedom of information requests.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 her Department (a) fulfilled and (b) refused in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) up to July 2008. (251762)

The information requested has been published in the Ministry of Justice’s annual reports on the operation of the FOI Act in central Government. These can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/foi-annual-report-central-gov-2006.pdf

for requests received in 2006,

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/foi-report-2007-final-web.pdf

for cases received in 2007.

Information on cases received between January and July 2008 can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/quarterly-stats-jan-mar-08.pdf

and

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/quarterly-stats-apr-jun-08.pdf

these are also available in the Library.