Office for Nuclear Regulation

The complainant has requested information from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) about inspections, safety defects and improvement deadlines over a 2 year period. The ONR applied section 12(1) of the FOIA to the request, as it estimated the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit. The Commissioner’s decision is that the ONR applied section 12(1) of the FOIA incorrectly as it did not reasonably estimate that the cost to comply with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. She also finds that in failing to adequately advise the complainant on how to refine his request to bring it within the cost limit, the ONR breached section 16(1) of the FOIA. The Commissioner requires the ONR to write to the complainant with a fresh response to the request that does not rely on section 12(1) of the FOIA.