Backlogs, staff shortages and missed freedom of information (FOI) deadlines.
These are some of the issues behind the regulatory action we’ve taken this month.
Each month, patterns emerge showing where organisations struggle to meet their FOI obligations, whether that’s delays in responding, resource pressures or poor processes.
As the regulator, part of our role is to take action where necessary using the powers available to us such as issuing public authorities practice recommendations and enforcement notices.
We’ve published our latest action as a means for you as information rights practitioners to see where things are going wrong, how issues escalate and how you can learn from this.
The 10 practice recommendations we issued to councils and local authorities this month were for failing to publish their compliance statistics.
Remember, if you’re a public authority with over 100 full time equivalent employees, you should publish details of your performance on handling requests for information under FOIA 2000.
Our guidance sets out exactly what this should include, and has a template that you can download to make reporting easy.
📍 March enforcement notices
• Metropolitan Police Service
• University of Birmingham Hospitals NHS Foundation
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust
📍 April practice recommendations
• Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council
• Cheshire East Council
• Cheshire West and Chester Council
• Chorley Borough Council
• Greater Manchester Combined Authority
• Hyndburn Borough Council
• Pendle Borough Council
• Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council
• South Ribble Borough Council
• Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council
📍 April enforcement notices
• Department of Business and Trade
• Gloucestershire Police
