Hi
Have they given you a break down of why it would take so long? I'm a DP officer (amongst other things!) , and if we refuse under section 12, we always provide a full breakdown of why it would take longer than the 18 hours applicable limit (the DP Act states that it should be included).
They can't include things like the time it would take a report to run (as this isn't actual "man" hours, it's purely a system based thing) UNLESS they can prove that running a report in the background would "severely affect" their operation.
The only way I can see it taking that long is if the info isn't held in a way that is retrievable by report and would have to be manually extracted.
I'd challenge their refusal and ask for a full breakdown if they haven't provided one.
DJM
"Genius may have its limits, but stupidity is not thus hampered." Mary Doria Russell, "The Sparrow"
