Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many staff in her Department are responsible for (a) processing and (b) responding to Freedom of Information Act requests; and if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of this work.

Answering requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 is part of the day-to-day work of all the department’s officials. The costs of officials’ time are not held in such a way that time spent on processing and responding to Freedom of Information requests can be estimated.