To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 his Department received in 2008; and how many of these received a substantive response within 20 days. (305502)

Statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on freedom of information in central Government for 2008 show that of a total of 1,019 non-routine requests received by the Department (based on aggregated quarterly data) 80 per cent. (815) received a substantive response within 20 days. 98 per cent. (994) of requests were dealt with ‘in time’, that is within 20 days by meeting the deadline or other permitted extension deadline.

The statistics can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/freedomofinformationquarterly.htm

and copies are available in the Library of the House.