§ Mr. RookerTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security 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. HagueNo charge is made for simple requests for information, where the information can be collected within half a day or less. For more detailed requests which would take more than half a day to process, a charge may be made to recover the actual cost of collecting the information in staff time, photocopying costs and so on. The charges are based on the hourly rate for the grade of staff engaged in retrieving the information.
The Department has always, and continues, to provide information free of charge on benefit entitlements and the standards and availability of services.