Greater Manchester Police issued with enforcement notice over failure to clear FoI backlog 

The Information Commissioner’s Office has today (20 December) issued an enforcement notice to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for “repeated failures” to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The ICO revealed that GMP currently has a backlog of 850 overdue requests.

Of these, more than 800 are over six months old and 580 are over a year old. The oldest open request was submitted almost two and a half years prior to the issuing of the enforcement notice, said the regulator.

The ICO has demanded “urgent action” from GMP, adding that it has “currently done little to address the response backlog”.

The police force has been ordered to devise and publish an action plan within 35 days “detailing how it will respond to information requests in a timely fashion, while also clearing its backlog of late requests by 31 July 2024”, said the watchdog.

It warned that GMB could be held in contempt of court if it fails to comply with the actions.

The enforcement notice follows a practice recommendation issued in February 2023 after the ICO’s routine monitoring showed that GMP was the most complained-about police force for timeliness over the previous 12 months. 

The ICO revealed GMP wanted to clear the backlog by the end of 2024, but this was deemed “unacceptable”. 

Phillip Angell, Head of FOI Casework at the Information Commissioner’s Office, said: “In issuing this enforcement notice today, we are demanding urgent action from Greater Manchester Police in responding to freedom of information requests. 

“Greater Manchester Police has currently done little to address the response backlog. Whilst we recognise that an action plan has been put in place and some progress has been made to improve its timeliness since the issuing of the Practice Recommendation, we are not seeing the improvement both we and the public need to see at the pace we need to see it. Improved response times to incoming requests should not be made at the expense of clearing the existing backlog – they should go hand in hand. 

“There is nothing more important than the police maintaining the trust and understanding of the public, but this is not the way to earn that trust. Transparency is key, and compliance with freedom of information requests is a vital part of that.” 

Responding to the ICO's announcement, Ian Cosh, Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) at Greater Manchester Police, said: “GMP takes the Enforcement Notice issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) incredibly seriously and have an action plan in place, which is already in motion, enabling us to respond timely to incoming requests, while managing an unprecedented volume of requests in recent years.

“GMP are committed to transparency and upholding individuals’ access rights, and since receiving the Practice Recommendation from the ICO in February, GMP has engaged in positive discussions with the ICO. We have introduced a robust action plan which includes new practices and processes to better service the public’s right to request information, which has already delivered positive results.

“This action plan includes reprioritising existing force resources into the team, as well as recruiting new staff, some of whom have already started with us."

Cosh added: “GMP has focused on delivering long-term and sustainable improvement in our information access service. As a result, our compliance rate has improved significantly, exceeding 80% consistently over the last four months and the national average for police forces which currently stands at 76%.

“I do not take these steps in the right direction as complacency, but I want to provide the public reassurance that I’m confident that our action plan will result in us managing outstanding requests in a timely manner and maintaining compliancy with statutory requirements.”

Lottie Winson