Advertising costs

22 June 2022

Dear

Complaint in respect of ATISN 16280

Thank you for your request for an internal review following our disclosure to you under ATISN 16280.

I have considered your complaint in accordance with the procedure outlined in Requesting information from the Welsh Government which is available by post on request or via the internet.

As outlined within our response, the information requested is not held centrally and therefore a trawl across Welsh Government to determine what is held over multiple years on any (or all) of the ICNN members in Wales or publications would be required (and as such, the appropriate limit set out within the Freedom of Information Act (2000) would be exceeded). However, if you were able to provide a list of those ICNN members or publications on which you would like to receive information (and/or a smaller time period), we can consider further and determine whether to respond would be possible within time limits.

If you remain dissatisfied with this response you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk      

Yours sincerely

24 May 2022

Dear

ATISN 16280

Thank you for your requests which I received on 25 April 2022. You asked for: 

Part 1

The number of paid advertisements (Statutory, promotional, job or other) by Welsh Government (either placed direct or via agency) in welsh independent media titles. 

For a guide a list of such titles could be identified via ICNN membership community journalism. 

I would like to request the data for the last three financial years, and if it could be presented per year per publication title that would be appreciated,

Part 2

Further to the regular Welsh Government advertisements in the Chester Standard (England) I would like to request the number and titles of print publications Welsh Government have placed adverts in (Statutory, promotional, job or other) either directly or via an agency over the last three financial years in titles that are not published in Wales and/or have a non-welsh geographic name such as the Chester Standard.

If it is possible to give the detail per year, per publication that would be appreciated. 

I have considered your request. You do not list the publications that you would like information on but provide a weblink which would require Welsh Government staff time in collating details on approximately 70 publications. As the breakdown of advertising spend is not held by the Welsh Government centrally, there would also be time required in collating any advertising spend for each of the individual publications for each of the years requested. I have therefore reached the conclusion that it will cost more than the appropriate limit established in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 to consider your request. The appropriate limit specified for central government is £600. When calculating whether or not your request exceeds the appropriate limit, I am allowed to consider the time it is likely to take to establish if we hold the information, locate the information, retrieve the information and extract it. If these tasks are estimated to take more than 24 hours of working time, the limit will have been exceeded. I consider that the working time and cost limit would both be exceeded in this case.

If you are dissatisfied with the Welsh Government’s handling of your request, you can ask for an internal review within 40 working days of the date of this response. Requests for an internal review should be addressed to the Welsh Government’s Freedom of Information Officer at:

Information Rights Unit 
Welsh Government
Cathays Park 
Cardiff 
CF10 3NQ 

or e-mail: Freedom.ofinformation@gov.wales

Please remember to quote the ATISN reference number above.   

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office 
Wycliffe House 
Water Lane 
Wilmslow 
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk       

However, please note that the Commissioner will not normally investigate a complaint until it has been through our own internal review process.

Yours sincerely