EDP24

Freedom of information - at a price

28 January 2005 07:07

Hidden charges in new freedom of information laws have created a postcode lottery that could see councils charge up to £250 for information that would be free from another authority.

An EDP investigation has found a loophole in the law means public bodies can choose to levy hefty bills for answering questions that are supposed to be dealt with for free.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, which came into force this month, thousands of public bodies have a new obligation to answer questions posed by the public.

The law forbids them from charging for staff time unless they have to spend more than two and a half days trawling through records.

But councils, police, health authorities and others are allowed to charge for photocopying and postage costs, meaning requests might be anything but free.

Guidance issued by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, last month said that "in most cases, photocopying and printing would be expected to cost no more than 10p per sheet of paper".

But the most expensive council in the region - West Norfolk - says it will charge five times that.

Its 50p per photocopy charge is 10 times the cost of the cheapest councils locally, with both South Norfolk Council and Norfolk County Council charging 5p a page.

South Norfolk says it will waive charges of less than £25 - up to to 499 A4 pages at their 5p rate.

The same information would cost £249.50 from West Norfolk.

West Norfolk's Chris Marshall said: "Some of the requests we are getting run to quite a few pages, but if people want to view the information rather than copy it they can do that for free.

"The charges are based on our standard photocopying costs."

At North Norfolk District Council, freedom of information officer Matthew Walsh said he would try to avoid charging the public.

"We aim to provide most information for free," he said.