Freedom of Information Practice Recommendation Action Plan
Following a consistently poor level of performance in terms of its response times to FOIA requests, on 19 December 2023 the Information Commissioner reached the view that the Council's request handling practices did not conform with part 4 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code).
After discussion between staff of the Information Commissioner and the Council, the Information Commissioner has designed recommendations to support and enhance the Council's plans to improve its information rights practices.
The practice recommendations are designed to achieve the following:
- The Council should ensure that requests for information are responded to in a timely manner.
(Section 4.1 of the Code highlights the ‘clear’ requirement that public authorities respond to requests for information promptly, and within 20 working days of receipt in accordance with section 10(1) of FOIA.)
The practice recommendation formalises the Commissioner's concerns and holds the Council accountable for improving its freedom of information request handling practices. This will, in turn, increase public confidence and trust in its information rights practices.
The practice recommendations are addressed in the following action plan:
Section A
The Council should use the Commissioner's FOIA self-assessment toolkit to improve its timeliness compliance.
This action has been completed.
Action Required
- By 26 January 2024 - Baseline the Council's FOI readiness using the Commissioner's FOIA self-assessment toolkit and identify the remedial actions required.
This action has been completed.
- From 1 February 2024 until conclusion - Monitor fulfilment of the actions as identified in the self-assessment action plan
This action is continuing.
- Immediately - Monitor progress regarding improvement in timeliness compliance
This action is continuing.
Section B
The Council's request handling procedures should include provision for when a response is late or is likely to be late at any stage of the internal processes, it is clear when and to who to escalate, who is responsible for taking such action, the action they will need to take, and by when.
Action Required:
- By 1 March 2024 - Include in the review of the Council's FOI request handling procedures what to do when a request is late or likely to be late.
This action has been completed.
Section C
The Council must ensure that its information rights training is sufficient to ensure that it has adequate coverage in place in order that request handling times do not fall below a compliant level in the event of the departure of key staff members.
Action Required:
- By 31 January 2024 - Include in the action plan from the self-assessment a review of information rights training needs and resilience within the organisation in the event of the absence or departure of key staff members.
This action has been completed.
- By 1 March 2024 - Introduce mandatory FOI training - initially for managers and those regularly dealing with FOI requests then expanding to all staff in 24/25.
This action has been completed.
- By 1 March 2024 - Identify the additional training needs of specialist FOI staff
This action is continuing.
- By 1 April 2024 - Ensure sufficient resource is available for FOI processing to be compliant with legislation.
This action has been completed.
Section D
The Council should create an action plan, incorporating the recovery plan already in development, with appropriate processes put in place to ensure 90% timeliness is achieved by 1 May 2024. This action plan should be supported by a ‘lessons learned’ exercise, which examines the root cause of delays from allocation through to clearance at different stages, with mitigations for any recurring problems addressed specifically in the plan. The action plan should be published on its website for full transparency about the improvements it is making.
Action Required:
- By 31 January 2024 - Create an action plan from the results of the self-assessment.
This action has been completed.
- By 14 February 2024 - Publish the Action Plan on the Council's Freedom of Information website pages.
This action has been completed.
- By 31 January 2024 - Through the self-assessment process identify root causes for delay and identify remedial actions in the resulting action plan.
This action has been completed.
- From 1 February 2024 - Accumulate monthly data concerning reasons for delayed responses to better understand root causes on an ongoing basis.
This action has been completed.
Section E
The Council should publish its information access request statistics in accordance with part 8.5 of the Code and make these easily accessible on its website. These statistics should include the detail specified in part 8.5 of the Code and be updated quarterly in accordance with part 8.6 of the Code (section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice).
Action Required:
- By 16 February 2024 - Create content pages on the Council's website to publish information access statistics in accordance with the Code.
This action has been completed.
- From 1 March 2024 - Commence collection of those statistics not currently recorded.
This action is continuing.
- By 1 March 2024 for statistics collected currently, and from 1 April 2024 for newly collected statistics, publish on the Council's website:
- The number of requests received each month;
- The number of the received requests that have not yet been processed;
- The number of the received requests that were processed in full;
- Of those processed:
- The number which were met within the statutory deadline;
- The number which were met within an extended deadline;
- The number where the processing took longer than the statutory deadline;
- The number of requests where the information was granted in full;
- The number of requests where the information was refused in full or not held;
- The number of requests where the information was granted in part and refused in part;
- The number of requests received that have been referred for internal review.
- Statistics to be published within 10 working days of the month end.
This action is continuing.
Section F
The Council should write to the Commissioner by 1 May 2024 to confirm that it has complied with its recommendations and how it has achieved this.
Action Required:
- By 1 May 2024 - Write to the Information Commissioner
This action is continuing.