FOI requests to councils soared by 20% to almost 200,000 in 2010, research finds

The number of freedom of information requests made to councils in England rose by 20% to almost 200,000 in 2010, research has revealed.

The annual survey of FOI officials by the Constitution Unit at University College London found that the average council received 47 FOI or Environmental Information Regulations requests a month.

Extrapolating this out to cover all English councils, the researchers estimated that there were 197,773 requests over the year. This was up from 164,508 in 2009 and just 60,361 in 2005, when the first UCL survey was conducted.

UCL’s researchers calculated that the total cost of dealing with these requests was £31.6m – or an average of £159.80 per request.

The 2010 survey also found that there were major differences in request volumes depending on the type of council, with district councils receiving only a third of the volume of requests that county councils and London boroughs received.

There were also wide differences between the types of council when it came to some compliance indicators. “Rates of fully disclosing information, withholding information, and hours taken to process requests differ markedly,” the researchers said.

The UCL survey shows the increasing role of the media in making FOI requests. In 2005 it accounted for just 11% of all requests, but this has now risen to a third (33%). Officials also said these requests were the most time-consuming to answer.

Members of the public still account for the highest proportion of requests at 37%, although this is down from 43% in 2005. Businesses made a quarter of all requests in 2010 (29% in 2005).

Other significant findings from the 2010 survey were:

• The number of requests resulting in full release was 156,337
• A total of 12,490 requests resulted in no release
• The percentage of refusals (6.3%) was at its lowest level in the history of the surveys (2009: 7.2%; 2005: 8.3%)
• The number of internal reviews was the highest yet recorded at 2,852. However, the total has remained fairly consistent as a proportion of the number of refusals (22.8%)
• The average hours spent per request was 6.4, down from 16.4 in 2005
• A majority of authorities (62%) did not charge fees under any circumstances
• Opinion was divided about whether the requirement to publish spending over £500 was having an impact. More than half of the respondents said it had had no impact on the number of FOI requests they received
• Finance, costs and expenses remained the most-requested topic, accounting for 33% of the total. This was followed by: public services (14%); personal information about staff (11%); planning, policy decisions/minutes; environmental information; contracts and business (all 10%); and local issues (1%)
• The main problems with compliance identified by officials were: difficult requests and requesters (29%); lack of resources (28%); the motivation/cooperation from management or service departments (15%); and timescales (11%)
• All council types had improved their performance in answering requests on time.

The researchers also found that local government officials were more positive about the role FOI had played in making their organisation more open, transparent and accountable.

Almost half (49%) cited this as one of their top three ways in which FOI had a positive effect. It was followed by improved records management (20%); improvements within the organisation but not records management (15%); and an improved relationship with the public (10%).

The UCL survey can be downloaded here.  Substantive responses were provided by 104 local authorities.

Philip Hoult