The Trust will calculate the fees by estimating the time it will reasonably incur on the following activities:
- determining whether the information requested is held
- locating the information or documents containing the information
- retrieving such information or documents
- extracting the information from the document containing it (including editing or redacting information)
The standard hourly rate that all authorities must use to calculate the staff costs of answering requests is £25 per hour.
There will be no fee to pay for requests for information that cost less than £450 or 18 working hours to complete as prescribed in the Fees Regulations.
The Trust is however entitled to make a charge to recover the cost of reproduction of the information and postage, which are referred to as disbursements costs and will do so if those costs exceed £5 in total.
If there is a fee to pay, you will be notified in writing through a “Fees Notice”, including the total cost and an explanation of how those costs have been calculated. The 20 day compliance time is suspended and reactivated upon receipt of payment.
The Trust will provide advice and assistance and discuss with the requester how the scope of their request could be narrowed in order to keep the fees as low as possible.
When the Trust has issued a fees notice, the applicant has three months to pay. The authority does not have to answer the request until payment has been received (section 9(2) of the Freedom of Information Act) and will consider the request to have been cancelled if payment is not forthcoming within three months after the fees notice is issued