JISC infoNet, UK, has conducted research that reveals the true cost to a university of processing a freedom of information (FOI) request. The research shows that in the seven institutions surveyed, a FOI request takes a university an average of 5 hours 2 minutes to respond, at a cost of £99 rising to £121 when employment overheads are taken into consideration.
However, the report suggests that there are factors influencing these costs, including the size of the institution, the nature of the request and possibly the maturity of the institution’s records management system.
The research tracked 36 different FOI requests in seven institutions during January 2012.
Now that the methodology underpinning this research has seemingly proved successful, JISC infoNet plans to collect similar data for a further 140 requests over five months later this year. The work was inspired by discussions with the UUK.
The JISC figures appear to be broadly in line with data released earlier this week from the Ministry of Justice study into the costs associated with FOI. That study suggested an average response time of 5 hours 21 minutes at a cost of £164 for non-central government departments, rising to 6 hours 10 minutes and £184 for central government departments.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives anyone the right to access information held by public authorities, which includes most UK colleges and universities.
The report is available online at http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/projects/foi/index_html
