Charging for Information

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) makes information available free of charge to the greatest extent possible. This information is usually accessible via its main website (http://www.mod.uk) or via the MOD Publication Scheme and Disclosure Log. However, it should be noted that charges apply to some items within the Publication Scheme. The Act provides that where information is reasonably accessible to applicants through other means, such as through other legislation or through an authority's publication scheme, it is exempt. This means that the rules for costing and charging for compliance with the Act do not apply in these cases.

• The Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors
• The Advisory Group on Military Medicine
• The Animal Welfare Advisory Committee
• The Armed Forces Pay Review Body
• The Central Advisory Committee on Pensions and Compensation
• The Dartmoor Steering Group and Working Party
• The Defence Nuclear Safety Committee
• The Defence Scientific Advisory Council
• The Independent Board of Visitors Military Corrective Training Centre
• National Army Museum
• The National Employer Advisory Board
• The Nuclear Research Advisory Council
• The Oil and Pipelines Agency
• The Review Board for Government Contracts
• Royal Air Force Museum
• Royal Hospital Chelsea
• The War Pension Committees

Under the terms of the Fees Regulations, all public authorities must estimate the cost of effort involved in answering a request on the basis that staff time to be calculated at the rate of £25 per person per hour. Using the appropriate limit of £600, this equates to 24 hours of work. The activities which may be counted when calculating the cost of effort are limited to the following:

- determining whether information relevant to the request is held

- locating the information

- retrieving the information, and

- extracting the information (this includes effort involved in editing or redacting information that is exempt)

providing the total cost of this work (calculated in accordance with the Fees regulations) does not exceed the appropriate limit, requests are answered free of charge. If processing a request would exceed the appropriate limit, the MOD will invite the applicant to narrow down the request to bring it within the appropriate limit. If this cannot be done to the satisfaction of the applicant it is likely that the request will be refused on cost grounds.

It should be noted that the Fees Regulations say that public authorities may also charge for the cost of disbursement such as printing, photocopying, postage and communicating information in a form specified by the applicant. However, the cost of putting the material in Braille ( as required by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995) or translating information into Welsh (as required by the Welsh Language Act 1993) is excluded from these charges.

If, exceptionally the MOD does decide to answer a request that exceeds the appropriate limit, a Fees Notice which sets out the details of the proposed fee and relevant calculations relating to the fee will be issued. The MOD is not obliged to respond to the request unless the fee is paid within three months of the Fee Notice being sent.

Information in hardcopy

Members of the public who do not have access to the Internet may ask for information that is published electronically in the Publication Scheme to be provided in hard copy. A single print-out from the relevant website page(s) can be provided by post by initial contact with MOD FOI team. However, requests for multiple print-outs or for archived copies of documents which are no longer available on the web, may attract a charge for the cost of retrieval, photocopying, postage etc. Applicants will be informed of this at the time of the request. The charge will be payable in advance.

If an information item in the Publication Scheme indicates that information is available to view in hard copy, this access will be provided free of charge. The Scheme will specify the address of the building that holds the information and any other action needed to arrange access. A charge may be made for photocopies but this will be specified at the time of the request and will be payable in advance of the information being provided.

Other information (e.g. hardcopies, or in some cases CD Rom, video or other medium) will be subject to a charge as indicated in the Publication Scheme. The relevant charge will be specified at the time of your request and this will be payable in advance.