Fees and Excessive Cost of Compliance

This briefing looks at how the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the EIRs) deal with the question of fees and excessive costs.
There are important differences between the two fees regimes.
FOISA allows public authorities to impose charges for responding to information requests, but fees regulations specify which activities may be charged for and the maximum hourly rate which may be charged for staff time. There is a threshold of £100 before a charge can be made and a ceiling (excessive costs) of £600 beyond which authorities do not have to comply with information requests. Authorities may charge only a proportion of the cost to the applicant.
The EIRs also allow public authorities to impose charges for responding to information requests, but the authority may determine its own charging schedule which must be reasonable. There is no ceiling beyond which the authority does not have to comply with a request.