Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
FOI Reference: FOI/202300363529
Date received: 24 June 2023
Date responded: 20 July 2023
Request
You asked for information related to the online form used to report suspected benefit fraud.
https://referrals.socialsecurity.gov.scot/
Request for Information 1: Please provide the number of forms you have received.
Request for Information 2: The number of individuals they relate to.
Request for Information 3: Please provide the month and year in which you received the first completed form.
Response to your request
Request for Information 1:
Social Security Scotland has record of having received 1,710 Webforms since it went live on the 1 August 2020.
Request for Information 2:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information on the ‘number of individuals the form relates to’ would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. Accessing each form that has been submitted so far to extract the information requested and to ensure no duplicates would exceed 40 hours. Under section 12 of FOISA, public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12.
You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at:
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx
Request for Information 3:
The first completed form was received in September 2020.
About FOI
Social Security Scotland is committed to publishing responses to requests. The Scottish Government also publishes responses to requests. You can view the responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.