Firstly, the limit on complying is monetary and not time. The specific legislation is the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. In addition, the authority can also take into consideration any costs incurred in finding and presenting the information. This includes any time considering exemptions. For central govt the limit is set at £600 and for most other authorities it's £450. In calculating the time, public bodies can only use the value of £25/hr regardless of who is involved. In terms of 'time' therefore, for central govt it equates to 24 hours (600/25) and for others it's 18hrs. As far as the tribunal is concerned, the costs incurred are not liked to the request. If a request breaches the limit, the authority is not obliged to respond. If it does, it can also issue a Fees Notice for the full amount and this would have to be paid before the work starts. If the authority decides not to, it MUST either advise and assist the requester in terms of drafting the request to make sure it comes in under the limit or advise the requester how much information would be available up to the appropriate limitAs far as taking into consideration incorrect responses, it's very easy to interpret a request one way only to find that wasn't what requester was after. Public bodies can ask the requester to clarify anything but if the authority doesn't think that's needed they carry on without it. Whose fault is that? The public body or the requester? (Given earlier responses, I think I know which way that will go!)

Secondly - there's no point in the requester making the same or similar request straight away as public authorities can refuse if they consider that the request is a repeat or substantially similar unless a reasonable period has elapsed (the Information Commissioner, the FOI watchdog, has suggested 60 days is sufficient) and this would even apply if someone else made the request as the public authority would probably consider that the request has been made with the intention of tying up the body’s time or has the effect of harassing either the body or staff. In this case, I suspect that the hospital would take this line. The enquirer would be better off waiting 3-4 months and then requesting the hospital to release further information not already disclosed. There’s no guarantee it would work but that’s what I suggest.