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Report 24 - Access to Information Review Task Force

AN ANALYSIS OF FEES FOR ACCESS TO INFORMATION REQUESTS

2.4 Relationship Between Fees Payable and Other Variables

Before beginning this section an overview of the fee types will be provided (see Table 12 below). Excluding application fees, the total non-application fees are determined almost entirely by photocopying (60%), and searching (33%). To a lesser extent preparation time is also important (7%) but all other fee types are either minimal or non-existent.

Table 12: Fee Types
 
Fees Payable
Percent
Application
$57,740
19.7%
Photocopying
$140,174
47.9%
Searching
$76,546
26.1%
Preparation
$16,799
5.7%
Programming
$970
0.3%
Computer
$348
0.1%
Microfilm to Paper
$141
0.0%
Diskette
$34
0.0%
Microfilm 16mm
$24
0.0%
Large Print
$11
0.0%
Audiocassette
$10
0.0%
Braille
$0
0.0%
Magnetic Tape
$0
0.0%
Microfiche
$0
0.0%
Microfilm 35mm
$0
0.0%
Total
$292,797
100.0%

The pages reviewed, released and photocopied all show a quasi-linear increase in average fees charged as the quantity categories increase. The number of pages photocopied shows the largest jump in average total fees for the last category with a mean of approximately $1,300 compared to $570 to $600 for pages reviewed and released respectively. The cause for sudden shifts in the average fees can be accounted for by the large total fees associated with some requests. As discussed earlier, a small fraction of the requests accounted for an inordinately large percentage of the pages and fees.

In 16.2% of the requests sampled there were no pages reviewed (and therefore no pages released or photocopied). This could be another indication of poor data, or an indication that no records relating to the request existed. Even if no records existed, fees would still be payable if more than five hours were spent searching for the records. (However, fees may often be waived if, even after efforts to clarify the request, no records are found.)

Table 13: Total Fees Payable by Pages Reviewed
Pages Reviewed
Number
Percentage
Mean Fees
Median Fees
Maximum
Total Fees
Percent of Total Fees
0
1,869
16.2%
$34.1
$5.0
$12,345
$63,654
21.7%
1 to 50
5,863
50.8%
$8.9
$6.8
$2,805
$52,071
17.8%
51 to 100
1,377
11.9%
$21.2
$17.4
$5,516
$29,175
10.0%
101 to 150
769
6.7%
$23.2
$26.8
$315
$17,836
6.1%
151 to 200
430
3.7%
$32.9
$36.0
$675
$14,157
4.8%
201 to 250
269
2.3%
$38.5
$45.0
$310
$10,369
3.5%
251 to 300
202
1.7%
$50.2
$55.8
$815
$10,131
3.5%
301 to 400
210
1.8%
$57.8
$65.5
$676
$12,143
4.1%
401 to 500
115
1.0%
$80.1
$74.6
$745
$9,211
3.1%
501 to 750
179
1.6%
$81.7
$100.0
$405
$14,632
5.0%
751 to 1000
106
0.9%
$91.3
$53.5
$635
$9,677
3.3%
1001 to 2001
97
0.8%
$154.7
$122.6
$605
$15,002
5.1%
2001 or more
61
0.5%
$569.5
$293.2
$7,017
$34,740
11.9%
Total
11,547
100.0%
$25.4
$7.0
$12,345
$292,796
100.0%

 

Table 14: Total Fees Payable by Pages Released
Pages Released
Number
Percentage
Mean Fees
Median Fees
Maximum
Total Fees
Percent of Total Fees
0
2,082
18.0%
$34.0
$5.0
$12,345
$70,786
24.2%
1 to 50
6,248
54.1%
$9.1
$7.0
$2,805
$56,937
19.4%
51 to 100
1,367
11.8%
$22.9
$18.2
$5,516
$31,276
10.7%
101 to 150
670
5.8%
$28.7
$29.0
$675
$19,258
6.6%
151 to 200
341
3.0%
$42.7
$39.2
$628
$14,570
5.0%
201 to 250
184
1.6%
$47.2
$49.0
$310
$8,690
3.0%
251 to 300
154
1.3%
$69.6
$59.4
$815
$10,718
3.7%
301 to 400
167
1.4%
$66.3
$71.2
$495
$11,074
3.8%
401 to 500
85
0.7%
$182.8
$95.0
$7,017
$15,535
5.3%
501 to 750
109
0.9%
$115.2
$119.2
$426
$12,553
4.3%
751 to 1000
51
0.4%
$157.7
$169.4
$635
$8,041
2.7%
1001 to 2001
60
0.5%
$264.1
$251.7
$846
$15,843
5.4%
2001 or more
29
0.3%
$604.0
$421.2
$3,200
$17,515
6.0%
Total
11,547
100.0%
$25.4
$7.0
$12,345
$292,796
100.0%

 

Table 15: Total Fees Payable by Pages Photocopied
Pages Copied
Number
Percentage
Mean Fees
Median Fees
Maximum
Total Fees
Percent of Total Fees
0
3,115
27.0%
$27.7
$5.0
$12,345
$86,309
29.5%
1 to 50
5,673
49.1%
$8.5
$7.0
$513
$48,099
16.4%
51 to 100
1,187
10.3%
$20.6
$18.8
$519
$24,417
8.3%
101 to 150
561
4.9%
$30.0
$29.4
$134
$16,812
5.7%
151 to 200
302
2.6%
$43.1
$39.8
$308
$13,005
4.4%
201 to 250
161
1.4%
$50.4
$49.8
$80
$8,111
2.8%
251 to 300
136
1.2%
$64.4
$60.0
$384
$8,758
3.0%
301 to 400
142
1.2%
$88.2
$74.2
$676
$12,525
4.3%
401 to 500
68
0.6%
$123.0
$95.8
$846
$8,362
2.9%
501 to 750
93
0.8%
$134.5
$122.6
$426
$12,504
4.3%
751 to 1000
42
0.4%
$348.3
$173.6
$7,017
$14,629
5.0%
1001 to 2001
50
0.4%
$328.1
$289.1
$732
$16,406
5.6%
2001 or more
17
0.1%
$1,344.7
$725.0
$5,516
$22,860
7.8%
Total
11,547
100.0%
$25.4
$7.0
$12,345
$292,796
100.0%

The fees payagle by request status are provided in Table 16. Requests where nothing was disclosed or no information was found had virtually no fees payable other than the application fee. The other categories had fees payable that ranged from $13 to $25 on average, with two exceptions. At the higher end of the fees, requests that were disclosed in part had an average fee of $35 and abandoned requests had an average of $164.

Table 16: Total Fees Payable by Status
Status Number Percentage Mean Fees Median Fees Maximum Total Fees Percent of Total Fees
All Disclosed 5,437 47.1% $13.0 $7.2 $1,225 $70,537 24.1%
Disclosed in Part 4,034 34.9% $34.9 $12.3 $5,516 $140,864 48.1%
Treated Informally 112 1.0% $22.2 $5.0 $427 $2,488 0.8%
Nothing Disclosed (exempt) 229 2.0% $5.7 $5.0 $54 $1,311 0.4%
No Information Found 957 8.3% $5.7 $5.0 $255 $5,421 1.9%
Unable to Process 266 2.3% $20.3 $5.0 $1,760 $5,395 1.8%
Abandoned 396 3.4% $163.5 $5.0 $12,345 $64,746 22.1%
Transferred 86 0.7% $17.0 $5.0 $955 $1,463 0.5%
Other 30 0.3% $19.1 $5.0 $172 $573 0.2%
Total 11,547 100.0% $25.4 $7.0 $12,345 $292,796 100.0%

Total fees payable by the source of the request is shown in Table 17. The highest average fees were incurred by the least common source of requests; academics and media both had mean fees close to $60. Media, which accounted for less than 8% of the requests accounted for 18% of the fees payable. Organizations were the third highest with average fees of $40 dollars. The most frequent sources of requests, businesses and the general public, had average fees of approximately $21. Despite the lower average fees, business still represented 44% of the total fees payable and the general public 27%.

Table 17: Total Fees Payable by Source of Request
Request Source
Number
Percentage
Mean Fees
Median Fees
Maximum
Total Fees
Percent of Total Fees
Business
6,220
53.9%
$20.7
$6.8
$7,017
$128,724
44.0%
Public
3,634
31.5%
$21.6
$8.6
$5,516
$78,430
26.8%
Media
892
7.7%
$59.3
$5.4
$12,345
$52,894
18.1%
Organization
776
6.7%
$40.4
$5.0
$4,185
$31,317
10.7%
Academic
25
0.2%
$57.3
$5.0
$372
$1,431
0.5%
Total
11,547
100.0%
$25.4
$7.0
$12,345
$292,796
100.0%

More than 90% of requesters in each category pay only the application fee. For the public this proportion rises to over 98%.

Table 18: Fees Paid by Source of Request
  Academic Business Media Organization Public
  Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
$5 23 92.0% 5706 91.7% 807 90.5% 729 93.9% 3573 98.3%
More than $5 2 8.0% 514 8.3% 85 9.5% 47 6.1% 61 1.7%
Total 25 100.0% 6220 100.0% 892 100.0% 776 100.0% 3634 100.0%

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Last Updated: 2002-06-10
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