TOPIC 3 - FEES/CHARGING
Questions 12 to 22 asked a number of questions about fees/charging. This annex provides detail on the responses to each question.
(NB Question 22 responses are not described separately. Answers given to this question were generally related to another question and so the responses were considered alongside the other responses to the question to which they were most relevant.)
ANNEX 7 (a) - FURTHER DETAIL ON RESPONSES TO SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Question 12 - Do you think the current fees regulations are generally correct? Are they effective?
Overall - 85 respondees provided comment on this issue. 8 respondees felt that they could not comment as they had no experience.
Organisation or Sector | Number of respondees |
Sector/Public body | 71 |
Voluntary/Campaign/Commercial/Community/Residents | 7 |
Private Individual | 7 |
1. RESPONSES FROM SECTORS/PUBLIC BODY
Do you think the current fees regulations are correct? - 56 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 35 (62.5%), indicated the fees regulations are not correct. 21 (37.5%) indicated the fees regulations are correct.
Do you think the current fees regulations are effective? - 47 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 36 (76.6%) indicated the fees regulations are not effective. 11 (23.4%) indicated the fees regulations are effective.
Summary of views expressed
SUMMARY | No. of times |
Regulations do not allow for effective/realistic/actual/proportionate cost recovery | 19 |
Regulations are open to abuse/are not a deterrent for multiple, malicious, or frivolous requests | 10 |
No experience/Don't know | 9 |
Complicated and difficult to understand/time consuming/complex to calculate | 9 |
Difficult to estimate projected costs up-front | 9 |
Not practical to charge/cost of invoicing outweighs benefits | 5 |
Regulations are rarely applied | 3 |
Regulations do not act as/are not being used as a deterrent | 4 |
Regulations are fair/OK/should not be changed | 1 |
Regulations still allow for considerable costs to be incurred, resources are directed away from service delivery | 2 |
Regulations are useful as a basis for clarifying requests | 1 |
Regulations operate well | 1 |
Regulations encourage responsible use of the Act | 1 |
Regulations do not benefit either the authority of the requestor | 1 |
No requests resulted in a charge | 1 |
Other comments were:
13 respondees felt that some form of up-front or flat fee should be introduced, with 2 respondees suggesting a fee for internal review, and 1 respondee suggesting a fee for appeal for a decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner
- 3 respondees felt that some form of up-front or flat fee should not be introduced
- 4 respondees suggested that the % allowed recovery should be increased
- 3 respondees suggested that commercial organisations should be charged differently to individuals
- 3 respondees commented that fees should be low enough so as not to act as a deterrent
Different regimes cross-border is confusing - should have the same regime throughout
Free access to information would impact on public sector resources
Provide everything up to the prescribed amount free of charge (as this currently happens in practice)
Introduce fees for certain types of requests
Specialist library stock should not be covered by FOI(S)A
A major problem is what constitutes one "request" in relation to calculating costs for the purpose of charging fees or invoking the excessive cost limit.
2. RESPONSES FROM VOLUNTARY/CAMPAIGN/COMMERCIAL/COMMUNITY/RESIDENTS
1 respondent felt that they could not comment as they had no experience.
Do you think the current fees regulations are correct? - 2 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 1 (50%), indicated the fees regulations are not correct. 1 (50%) indicated the fees regulations are correct.
Do you think the current fees regulations are effective? - 2 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 1 (50%) indicated the fees regulations are not effective. 1 (50%) indicated the fees regulations are effective.
Summary of comments
SUMMARY | No. of times |
Regulations are open to abuse/are not a deterrent for multiple, malicious, or frivolous requests | 1 |
Regulations are fair/OK/should not be changed | 2 |
Other comments were:
3. RESPONSES FROM PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS
1 respondent felt that they could not comment as they had no experience.
Do you think the current fees regulations are correct? - 3 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 1 (33.3%), indicated the fees regulations are not correct. 2 (66.7%) indicated the fees regulations are correct.
Do you think the current fees regulations are effective? - 3 respondees provided an indication of a yes/no response to this question - 1 (33.3%) indicated the fees regulations are not effective. 2 (66.7%) indicated the fees regulations are effective.
Summary of comments
SUMMARY | No. of times |
Complicated and difficult to understand/time consuming/complex to calculate | 2 |
Regulations are fair/OK/should not be changed | 1 |
Other comments were: