FOI REF: FOI-2023-1455
You asked
Please can you provide a list (redacted as needed), ideally in spreadsheet format, of email addresses operated, managed and used by the UK Statistics Authority (from which emails can be sent and received), the number of emails in each of these inboxes, the size of data stored in each of these inboxes (e.g. in MB, GB, TB etc.), and, where known and feasible provide descriptions of whether these inboxes are associated with individual users / shared inboxes / are for specific purposes, which email addresses are in the public domain, how long the email address has been in operation etc. Please also provide a date for which the information was retrieved.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) provides a route of access to recorded information held by the authority unless an exemption applies.
Any attempts to retrieve the information that you have requested will impose an unreasonable burden on the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). Therefore, Section 14(1) of the FOIA is engaged.
We do not hold a central list containing all the details requested, so collating the requested information would require a significant amount of resource. In order to supply you with the requested information, our IT department would be required to write bespoke code to extract information about shared and personal mailboxes, their size and number of emails in each mailbox. As well as the staff time and skill taken to write this bespoke code, we must also account for the staff time taken to run the code, as there are over 8,000 mailboxes in use at the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). Then, to obtain the further detailed information you require, we would need to consult with every business area across the organisation. We have judged that it would take several weeks to search for, locate, and extract the requested information.
We must then consider the burden on our organisation regarding the management of the information once it has been located to prepare this for release under FOIA. Firstly, this would need to be collated ready for review by the legal team. They would then need to comb through all the collated information to identify and redact personal information. Furthermore, the legal team, in collaboration with the various business areas, would need to work through the information to identify any parts that would fall under further FOIA exemptions and consider whether these apply. As we have already identified that the quantity of information in question would be substantial, we do also believe that a notable amount of resource would be required to consider the application of exemptions and redactions. This would constitute a burden on our organisation that could only be justified by a serious purpose, where release of the requested information would be in the public interest.
From review of your request, we cannot ascertain any serious purpose or value in obtaining this information, as this request is very wide in scope with minimal details about any specific purpose. We cannot see how the burden placed on our organisation (costing public sector time and money) by actioning this request would be proportionate to the aims of the request, or in the public interest.
We therefore believe Section 14(1) of FOIA applies and will not be providing the requested information.