Unitary authority hit with enforcement notice over handling of FOI requests
Shropshire Council has become the latest local authority to be handed an enforcement notice for poor handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, under the Information Commissioner's Office's new approach to regulating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
The ICO said the unitary authority had a backlog of information requests as a result of a "weak" FOI request handling system, in which individual service areas were responsible for recording and collating their own FOI requests.
This prompted the ICO to seek enforcement action in line with its new 'FOI and Transparency Regulatory Manual' published in 2022 and its three-year strategic plan.
If the ICO decides a public authority is not complying with the 2000 Act, it can issue an enforcement notice under section 52 of the Act. If a local authority does not comply with an enforcement notice, it could be found in contempt of court.
The new manual notes that enforcement notices are used "when there are repeated and/or significant or systemic issues in compliance with any of the requirements of Part 1 of FOIA".
Authorities that are consistently late in responding to information requests, have a backlog of information requests, or have outstanding requests that are significantly over the time limit for compliance, among other failings, can fall foul of an enforcement notice, according to the manual.
In the case of Shropshire, the ICO said the council had more than a hundred unanswered information requests.
The council told the ICO it had plans to clear its backlog of FOI requests by the end of March but still had 143 unanswered requests towards the end of April. The oldest unanswered request dated back to April 2021, with remaining requests dating from January 2022 and every subsequent month, according to the ICO.
The enforcement notice requires the council to respond to all outstanding requests over 20 working days old, no later than six months from the date of the notice. It is also required to devise and publish an action plan to mitigate any future delays to FOI requests within 35 days from the date of the notice.
Phillip Angell, Head of FOI Casework at the ICO, said: "People have a legal right to be able to ask their council about its actions and receive an answer promptly. In its poor handling of FOI requests Shropshire Council has been failing to be transparent and accountable. We've demanded it does better."
Angell added: "Any public authority with poor Freedom of Information compliance levels may be subject to enforcement or practice recommendations as part of the ICO's commitment to promoting openness, transparency and accountability."
A spokesperson for Shropshire Council said: "The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called on us to improve the way we deal with Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
"We have already made improvements to our FOI processes and have been reducing the number of overdue FOI requests. However, we still have more work to do and we are working with the ICO to improve our compliance with the legislation."
The news comes after Lewisham Council was handed a similar enforcement notice in March as a result of the ICO’s new approach.
The ICO was prompted to issue the notice after finding that the London borough had more than 300 overdue requests for information, with 221 being more than 12 months old.
Adam Carey
