North West council to be monitored by ICO over FOI responses

A North West council is to be monitored by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) over the timeliness of its responses to freedom of information (FOI) requests.

Trafford Council is the latest local authority to have been put on the watchdog’s monitoring list, after the ICO identified a significant number of cases not being responded to within the statutory time limit of 20 working days.

Trafford joins the Metropolitan Police Service in having its performance reviewed between 1 May and 31 July 2016.

The ICO warned that failure to show signs of improvement during this period might result in enforcement action.

Two public bodies – The Ministry of Justice and Department of Finance and Personnel (Northern Ireland) – have, however, been taken off monitoring after delivering what the ICO described as “sustained improvement”. Both organisations had been subject to extended periods of review.

Gerrard Tracey, Principal Policy Adviser at the ICO, said: “The law sets limits on how quickly public authorities must respond. Trafford Council has not been meeting that requirement, and we’ll now be reviewing its performance.

“Similarly, the Metropolitan Police Service will continue to be looked at. They have implemented initiatives and measures to improve performance, but a growing volume of requests means that work hasn’t had enough of an impact on compliance with the law. We will continue to monitor them to ensure the necessary improvements are achieved.”