Re: Request Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act

Ali Perlman-Miller Customer Service Manager & KILO, Scotland Region Ministry of Justice Tribunals Service Wellington House 134-136 Wellington Street Glasgow

G2 2XL Mr Cochrane T 0141 354 8476 F 0141 354 8463 E [email protected] x

27 March 2009 Our Ref: FOI/09/58259 Our Ref: Your Ref:

Dear Mr Cochrane

Re: Request under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act

Thank you for your email of 23 February, in which you sought information held by the Tribunals Service (an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice), under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Your request has been passed to me because I have responsibility for answering requests which relate to the Tribunals Service (Social Security and Child Support Appeals (SSCSA)) and which have been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Your request asks:

What is the cost to the taxpayer per Tribunal where DWP and carer disagree on figures re alleged overpayment?

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you have requested is not held by this Department.

Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) exempts a public authority from the duty to confirm or deny if they hold the information being requested if they estimate that to confirm or deny would exceed the appropriate limit.

The appropriate limit for central Government is set at £600, which represents one person spending 3.5 working days in locating, extracting and collating the information being requested. Whilst our database is able to identify overpayment appeals, it cannot identify cases where the DWP and carer disagree on figures regarding overpayments, neither is there a facility to break down the cost of an appeal as information relating to the specific costs of an particular appeal or appeal type is not collated. However, we do calculate the average costs of an appeal based on the overall running costs of the SSCSA divided by the number of appeals cleared in the same financial year. The average cost of processing a Social Security and Child Support appeal, based upon figures for the financial year 2007-2008, is £304.00, including overheads.

We estimate that to confirm or deny if the Department holds this information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is because the databases used by the Tribunals Service do not record this type of information as there is no business need to collate such data.

While this information may be held within individual Tribunal files, information contained within these types of records is exempt under the terms of Section 32 (Court Records) of the FOIA. In order to establish if the Department holds the information you are seeking, a manual examination of each and every Tribunal file relating to overpayments would be required. This is an absolute exemption and there is no requirement to consider the public interest in disclosure.

I should however advise you in any event that it may not be possible to disclose the information if it constitutes the personal data of third parties under the terms of Section 40 of the FOIA. Other statutory bars on disclosure may also apply to this information, which may prevent us from disclosing the information you are seeking.

More information about the Tribunals Service financial performance and accounts is published in the document titled “Reforming, Improving, Delivering – Annual Report and Accounts 2007-08”, which is available on the Tribunals Service website at the following internet address: http://www.tribunalsservice.gov.uk/Tribunals/Documents/Publications/TSAR0708.pdf

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the Ministry of Justice has an independent review process. If you are dissatisfied with this decision, you may write to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit Information Directorate Ministry of Justice 1st Floor, Zone 1C Post point 1.41 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ

Email: [email protected] If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the right to apply to the Information Commissioner’s Office under Section 50 of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at the following address:

Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Internet: https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

Yours sincerely

Ali Perlman-Miller