§ Mr. RookerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the charging policy of his Department and the agencies for which he is responsible in respect of inquiries under the code of practice on access to Government.
§ Mr. WaldegraveIn line with guidance on charging produced by the Office of Public Service and Science, 115W which recognises the diversity of cost and operational structure across the range of bodies implementing the code, the charging arrangements developed by my Department can be summarised as follows:
- (i) there will continue to be no charge for the provision of information necessary to the fair and accountable performance of the Ministry's functions;
- (ii) a standard charge of £15 will be made for additional work needed to provide information over and above (i) in the case of simple requests, defined as those requiring less than two hours work at higher executive officer grade or below. This sum equates to about half the marginal cost of two hours work;
- (iii) an additional charge will be made, above the standard charge, for the provision of information in response to more complex requests. This will be calculated at marginal costs and will be related to the amount of time needed to complete the tasks.
The Ministry has always made a great deal of information available to the public on all aspects of its policies and procedures. No charges have yet been raised by the Department or its executive agencies for information requested under the code of practice. That is not expected to change significantly in the future.
A copy of MAFF's explanatory leaflet on charging for information provided under the code has been placed in the Library of the House.