Filing your request for information should always be free of charge. The right to file requests free of charge is confirmed by the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, which permits requests only for the costs of copying and delivery.

The majority of countries comply with this rule. In Europe there are two exceptions:

•    In Ireland a fee may be charged, which is generally €15 per request. An internal review appeal is €75 and the fee for an appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner is €150. In addition searching for the information may be charged at €20.95 per hour, although this fee will be waived if the information being requested relates would help a group or individual understand an issue of “national importance”. Fees will not be charged if the cost of collecting them will be more than the fee itself.

•    In Germany a fee of between €30 and €250 may be charged, and if the authority has to carry out significant work in answering the request (for example for blacking out sensitive information) this can rise to as much as €500. However, according to the Fees Regulation (Informationsgebührenverordnung) the filing fee (but not the additional costs) can be reduced by half or completely omitted on grounds of public interest.

Outside Europe, fees can be charged for searching for information in the United States and in Canada there is a $CA 5 fee that must be sent with each request (and which is refunded if the information which answers the requests cannot be found).

For the remainder of countries in the Council of Europe region, filing a request should be free of charge. If a public official tries to charge you, this is an abuse of office and should be denounced – or could make a good story!