Costs and fees
Freedom of Information Act 2000
There are two kinds of fee under the Freedom of Information Act 2000: fees under section 9 for releasing information that's required to be released, and fees under section 13 for releasing information that would usually be exempt under section 12 (excessive cost).
Section 9
The maximum fee chargeable under section 9 is set by regulation 6 of SI 2004/3244. Regulation 6 limits the maximum fee to the total costs the authority expects to incur in relation to:
- informing the person making the request whether it holds the information, and
- communicating the information to the person making the request.
including (6(3)):
- converting the information into the requested form
- copying it
- posting it
but not the costs of staff time (6(4)).
Section 13
The maximum fee under section 13 is set by regulation 7 of SI 2004/3244. This regulation applies to requests that exceed the costs limit set by section 12, and hence allows the authority to charge not only for the costs covered by section 9, but also for the costs that are covered by the costs limit.
