Received: 13 March 2024

Responded: 25 April 2024

The Police Federation of England and Wales ("PFEW") relies on section 12 of FOIA in response to the above request. This allows public authorities to refuse to comply with a request for information where the cost of compliance exceeds a statutory limit (known as the "Appropriate Limit").  At present the Appropriate Limit is set at £450 by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (see Reg. 3(3)). The cost of compliance is to be calculated based on a rate of £25 per person per hour (Reg. 4(3)). This means that the Appropriate Limit will be exceeded if it would require more than 18 hours of work.  

 The amount allocated to providing free meals at Federation House is included within an intercompany recharge between two PFEW departments. In order to determine the actual costs of providing lunch, the PFEW would need to determine the costs of food actually purchased, prepared and provided free of charge (as opposed to provided in other circumstances such as at paid for conferences/for hotel guests) in the past year. The time taken to undertake this exercise would exceed 18 hours. 

 Therefore, pursuant to Section 12 of FOIA, information regarding the actual cost of providing free meals is exempted. If you would like to refine your request to cover the estimated cost of providing free meals, then the PFEW will consider this request and respond to it accordingly under FOIA.