Three more councils to be monitored over delays in responding to FOI requests

Cumbria County Council, Nottingham City Council and Salford City Council have become the latest local authorities to be monitored by the Information Commissioner’s Office amid concerns over the timeliness of their responses to freedom of information requests.

The performance of the three councils will, together with that of the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland, be reviewed over FOI requests received between 1 February and 30 April 2015.

The ICO also announced that four other councils – Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Warwick and Wigan – would be taken off the monitoring list after improvements in their performance between 1 September and 30 November 2014.

Explaining the reason why the latest four public bodies had been put under the spotlight, the ICO said that in the cases of Cumbria, Nottingham and the Department of Finance and Personnel, there had been delays in at least four cases where the authorities  took “considerably longer” than the statutory time limit of 20 working days to respond.

Salford was meanwhile being monitored because it was currently responding to less than 65% of all of its FOI requests within the legal timeframe.

The ICO revealed that it is continuing to monitor Greenwich Council’s performance. This was after the authority “failed to significantly improve its performance when it was monitored between 1 May and 31 July 2014".

Greenwich’s latest performance figures covering 1 November to 31 January 2015 are currently being reviewed before a decision is taken as to whether formal regulatory action is required, the watchdog said.

The ICO added that it remained concerned at the performance of the Metropolitan Police Service in responding to information requests. “While their performance has improved since they were first placed on monitoring, the ICO is continuing to monitor and work with them to ensure these improvements are sustained.”

Graham Smith, the ICO’s Deputy Commissioner and Director of Freedom of Information, said: “Public authorities must respect people’s rights of access to information. That means responding to FOI requests within the statutory timeline of 20 working days, or with a slight extension if the request is particularly complex.

“We hope these public authorities use their inclusion on the latest monitoring list as an opportunity to get their houses in order so they can provide an acceptable service to the public by handling requests more efficiently in the future. The improvements we’ve seen at Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Warwick and Wigan councils are welcome.”