Freedom of Information request on grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2000 to 2021 documents (FOI 21/971)
Published 25 February 2022
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20th September 2021
FOI 21/971
Dear
Thank you for your information request, dated 21st August, where you asked for:
Please supply and itemise the level of grant funding received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from January 2000 up until August 2021 along with all email correspondence you have had with the foundation.
I can confirm that the MHRA does hold some of the information that you have requested. However, we have also determined that the information is exempt under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act and we cannot process your request any further.
Section 12 of the Act allows public authorities to refuse requests where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for central government is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 24 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
In order to process your request, we would need to: extract over 20 years of emails in addition to extract the data for funding. We consider that this would take longer than 24 working hours to complete.
We advise that you narrow your request by, for example, to itemised details of the grant funding only.
Please note that substantially similar requests made within 60 working days of an original request can be aggregated into one for the purposes of calculating a cost limit, meaning that section 12 could still apply.
If you disagree with how we have interpreted the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with regards to your request, you can ask for the decision to be reviewed. The review would be carried out by a senior member of the Agency who was not involved with the original decision.
If you have a query about the information provided, please reply to this email.
Kind regards,
MHRA Customer Service Centre
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU
Telephone 020 3080 6000