Estimates or Refusals - report

How to use this report

You can download this report as a Word document using the button on the top right corner of the page. The report contains a template for an action plan, which we suggest you complete. If you have an problem downloading the report into a word document please let us know.

You may find it easier to complete the report if you change the page orientation to landscape and turn on table gridlines (for more information, please see the help section of your word processing program).

Alternatively, we have created an Excel action plan template for you to complete. This consists of a list of the performance areas and a drop down menu where you can reflect the below ratings. We have added additional columns for you to populate that we think will help you make an actionable plan for improvement.

The action plan is intended to be a working document. It can be customised as appropriate for your public authority. If you:

• receive an unsatisfactory rating, you must put an action in place and prioritise it;
• receive an adequate rating, you should put an action in place to improve but this action should not be prioritised over actions relating to unsatisfactory ratings; and 
• receive a good rating, you should review the area to understand if further improvements can be made or what is required to maintain this performance.

Try not to focus effort on resolving symptoms; tackling symptoms may only move the problem from one place to another. Instead, identify, and put actions in place to mitigate or remove the root causes of the issues.

When devising improvement actions, we recommend you involve decision makers and people who will implement the actions. Your action plan should be agreed at a sufficient level of seniority with assigned responsibility for its delivery.

Question 1: The way in which the public authority estimates the cost of complying with a request is ...

Question 2:The way in which the public authority explains why complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit is ...

Question 3: The way in which the public authority responds in circumstances where determining if they hold the requested information would exceed the appropriate limit is ...

Question 4: The way in which the public authority records their estimates for future reference is ..

Question 5: The way in which the public authority meets their duty under section 16 of FOIA to provide advice and assistance to a requester whose request exceeds the cost of compliance is ...

Suggested actions:

• Consider developing a template, or aide memoire, to use when producing an estimate to ensure you consider the relevant tasks.
• Make sure you are aware of the circumstances when you should provide advice and assistance. 

What next

You should monitor delivery of the action plan.

Once actions have been completed you could take the relevant module again to establish whether the actions have improved performance and review whether further action is needed to ensure continuous improvement.

We recommend that you share your report with relevant colleagues and other similar public authorities who may learn from it.

In the interests of openness and transparency, we recommend that you publish your action plan.

Thank you for using our FOI self-assessment toolkit. Please consider leaving feedback to help us improve the toolkit.