asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Rooker on 7 May (WA 77) concerning human rights in the Republic of Ireland, on what basis and by whom it was considered that the answer could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. [HL3729]

The disproportionate cost threshold (DCT) is set by the Treasury and is currently £700. The cost of answering a PQ is the direct cost of civil servants' time in preparing answers for written PQs or producing the relevant data.

The requested information is not collated centrally. To provide it would involve a manual trawl of a vast quantity of records, including minutes of meetings, ministerial advice and correspondence. This could only be done at disproportionate cost.