The Information Commissioner’s Office has announced that it has taken action against two organisations in the public sector after they failed to meet their freedom of information obligations.
Enforcement notices have been issued to both Devon and Cornwall Police, and Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust as they have continuously failed to respond to freedom of information requests.
The ICO’s Head of FOI Complaints and Appeals, Phillip Angell, said:
“Everyone should have the ability to access public information. When this information is not received or is significantly delayed, it undermines people’s fundamental rights. This lack of transparency can also create unwanted barriers, risking public trust in the organisations we turn to at our most vulnerable.
“The public put trust in the NHS and Police when it comes to health and safety, so why, when those same organisations are asked to supply information, are they not met with the same trust?
“There are very clear legal requirements when it comes to FOI requests and therefore these failures have unfortunately resulted in regulatory action. These authorities must do better to clear their large FOI backlogs and put procedures in place to guarantee the timely response to all FOIs in the future and ensure that the public right to information is upheld.”
Devon and Cornwall Police saw its FOI request backlog increase from 77 (December 2023) to 251 (June 2024) with a consistently low number of requests being responded to within the statutory time frame of 20 days. Alongside this the response rate for internal review requests averaged between 0% and 22%. In order to improve this, the ICO has issued an order for the organisation to publish an action plan in the next month, for how it will comply with its duties to respond to FOI requests. Alongside the plan, the force has been told that it has six months to clear its existing FOI backlog.
Late FOI request compliance led to the Commissioner contacting Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust in June last year, which led to the discovery that it had only responded 29% of its requests during the statutory timeframe. In January this year, the trust also only responded 2.5% of the requests it received in the correct timeframe, with the backlog growing from 589 (April 2024) to 785 (June 2024). To support the trust as it improves, it has been given 35 days to publish an action plan for how it will clear its backlog by the end of the year.
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