Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

The complainant requested from Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (the Trust) information relating to new computers/desktops for particular teams. The Trust aggregated the request with the complainant’s previous requests and cited sections 12(4) and 12(1) (cost of compliance) of FOIA.
The Commissioner’s decision is the Trust was entitled to aggregate the request under section 12(4) of FOIA. However, the Commissioner finds that the Trust failed to provide a reasonable breakdown of the costs of the aggregated requests, and therefore it was not entitled to rely on section 12(1) of FOIA.
The Commissioner requires the Trust to take the following steps to ensure compliance with the legislation.
• Issue a fresh response to the request that does not rely on section 12(1) of FOIA.
The Trust must take these steps within 35 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.