ICO issues practice recommendations to two councils over FOI request handling

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has said it has more than doubled its enforcement action on Freedom of Information (FOI) in an announcement detailing action taken against councils and public bodies, including Liverpool City Council and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The ICO said it had issued a practice recommendation to Tower Hamlets for consistently failing to meet the expected level of performance in terms of responding to Freedom of Information Act requests within the statutory timeframe, and the number of overdue requests has increased in the first half in 2023.

It said it issued its practice recommendation to Liverpool for a "consistently poor level of performance" in terms of its response times to Freedom of Information Act requests.

"This has been highlighted by the disproportionately high number of complaints about response times submitted to the Information Commissioner, as well as the number of decision notices he has had to issue to the Council to compel it to respond to outstanding requests," the statement noted.

The ICO also announced action taken against three other public bodies. It said enforcement notices were issued to the Ministry of Defence and the Environment Agency. A third practice recommendation was made to the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

The increased enforcement action comes a year on from the publication of the watchdog's FOI regulatory manual, which promised a more strategic approach to FOI enforcement.

Commenting on the action, Warren Seddon, Director of FOI & Transparency at the Information Commissioner's Office, said: "One year on from publishing our new approach to enforcing people's right to access public information, we have delivered more than double the action we had taken in the 17 years since FOI law came into force.

He added: "Responding to Freedom of Information Act requests effectively and efficiently is important for maintaining transparency as well as the trust of the public.

"Senior leaders in all public authorities should look at what we are saying to their colleagues and make sure that their own organisation's performance and processes comply with the law as the public rightly expect them to and that we will use our powers to enforce when needed."

Adam Carey