FOI release

RFI 094: Meetings with Ministry of Defence

Updated 23 October 2024

RE: Freedom of Information request - Meetings with Ministry of Defence

Thank you for your freedom of information request, received on 17 August 2024, and allocated reference number RFI 094.

I confirm that we hold the information which you have requested but estimate that the cost of compliance would exceed the cost limit of £450, prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004, and we are therefore refusing your request. This £450 limit is based on the work necessary to comply with your request being carried out at a rate of £25 per hour and equates to 18 hours. Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the FOI Act) enables the SSRO to refuse an information request where compliance would exceed that cost limit.

Your request is extremely wide, covering as a minimum, information relating to all meetings attended by all SSRO employees and Board members (including past employees and members for whom we still hold information) with all Ministry of Defence officers and representatives over a period of three years. As an arms-length body sponsored by the MOD and charged with the regulation of MOD contracts, SSRO representatives meet with MOD representatives routinely and the number of meetings will doubtless run into the thousands. Assuming that most of the requested information would be contained in electronic calendars, we estimate that it would take in relation to a single week of meetings of one SSRO representative approximately 3-5 minutes to access, locate, review, extract and compile the requested information. This equates to approximately 1-2 working days to cover three years of meetings  (4 minutes x (52 weeks x 3 years)). Our estimate is based on it taking 11 hours of time for each person and then in addition the need for the SSRO to expend time in preparing the response. This does not of course take into account information held in other forms or applications (such as emails or Sharepoint) and nor does it take account of information held outside of personal accounts or devices which is held by the organisation centrally.  

Without knowing the purpose for which you requested the information it is difficult for us to provide specific advice on the formulation of a less costly information request, and it remains the case that a more limited information request might also be subject to exemptions from disclosure under the FOI Act.

Should you wish to submit an alternative information request, you might consider limiting this in a number of ways, for example:

• seeking only information held by a much smaller group of SSRO representatives;
• seeking only information covering a much shorter time period;
• seeking only information covering a much smaller group of MOD representatives; and
• seeking only information based on the use of key words.

If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within 40 working days and should be addressed to: enquiries@ssro.gov.uk. If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Details of how to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office are available at https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/how-you-can-contact-us/.