MoJ has no idea how many court cases are heard with non-Capita interpreters
HM Courts & Tribunals Service
SE Regional Support Unit
Ministry of Justice
9th Floor. Post Point 9.05
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
www.justice.gov.uk
By email
Reference: FOI-85753 17th October 2013
Freedom of Information Request
Dear Ms Santos,
Thank you for your email of 29th September 2013, in which you asked for the following information from HM Courts & Tribunals Service:
“Please provide the information of the total number of Chelmsford Magistrates Court cases where non Capita TI (ALS) interpreters were used in the period from 1st November 2012 to 1st December 2012.”
Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
I am afraid that I am not able to confirm whether the Ministry of Justice holds the information you have requested. On this occasion, the cost of determining whether we hold the information would exceed the limit set by the Freedom of Information Act and, as a result, I am afraid will not be taking your request further. In this letter I explain why that is the case.
The law allows us to decline to answer requests under FOIA when we estimate that it would cost us more than £600 (equivalent to 3½ working days’ worth of work, calculated at £25 per hour) to confirm whether the department holds the information requested.
In this instance to determine if all of the information requested is held we would be required to check 1500 files from all hearings heard at Chelmsford Magistrates Court within the period of 1st November 2012 to 1st December 2012, this would incur a cost of approximately £6250.
You can find out more about Section 12(2) by reading the extract from the Act and some guidance points we consider when applying this exemption, attached at the end of this letter.
You can also find more information by reading the full text of the Act, available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12.
Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we might be able to answer a refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example, asking for a lesser time period. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request will fall within the FOIA cost limit.
I am sorry that on this occasion I have not been able to answer your request. You have the right to appeal our decision if you think it is incorrect. Details can be found in the ‘How to Appeal’ section attached at the end of this letter.
Disclosure Log
You can also view information that the Ministry of Justice has disclosed in response to previous Freedom of Information requests. Responses are anonymised and published on our on-line disclosure log which can be found on the MoJ website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/series/freedom-of-information-disclosure-log
Yours sincerely
Kelly McGowan
South East Regional Support Unit
