Costs relating to FoI requests

The recent IDEA study on FOI (conducted by UCL) estimated costs for processing each FoI request in local government were £345 (see figures P17 of the report). It is worth noting back to an original posting about costs from IDEA last year ("the cost of meeting a single request could be anywhere between £1400 - £4000 depending upon the complexity of the request based on evidence obtained from USA and Canada") and the response I received. This information was also picked up on the media. See Birmingham Mail article). The issue I had at the time was that the costs were merely listed as "research" without any reference to sources, methods of calculation or differences in overseas legislation. It projected a "cost heavy" image of FoI. It is good to see some valuable and viable research conducted to give a clearer picture.