Normally, organisations do not charge for responding to your Subject Access Request but an organisation can charge a reasonable fee to cover their administrative costs if they think your request is "manifestly unfounded or excessive".
They can also charge a fee if you ask for further copies of your information following a request.
"Manifestly unfounded means the organisation believes you're not making a SAR because you truly want to exercise your legal right of access.
Examples of when your request may be manifestly unfounded include:
- having no clear intention of exercising your right of access (eg if you make a request but then offer to withdraw it in return for some form of benefit from the organisation); or
- if you are using your request to harass an organisation or cause disruption.
To come to this decision, the organisation must consider each request on a case-by-case basis".
So be aware of the above if " you want to make things really annoyingly awkward, submit a data access request and tell them you want every single piece of correspondence, internally and externally, written, electronic and voice recordings for the last 12 months".
