Effectiveness of Freedom of Information threatened

The effectiveness of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act is being undermined by slow responses from government departments, a new report has claimed.

In the study published today, which constitutes a damning indictment of the effectiveness of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the Campaign for Freedom of Information found the average time the Office took to start investigating a complaint was eight months.

In 28 per cent of cases, there was a delay of more than a year before the investigation began and 19 cases waited more than 18 months.

The report analysed nearly 500 formal decision notices issued by the ICO in the 18 months to March 31st this year, with the decisions being made under the FOI Act and the associated environmental information regulations.

It found that on average it took 19.7 months from the date of a complaint to the ICO to the date on which the ICO’s decision on the complaint was issued.

Forty-six per cent of cases took between one and two years from complaint to decision. A quarter of formal decisions took between two and three years, while five per cent of cases took more than three years.

The longest case took three years and ten and a half months and only 24 per cent of decisions were issued within a year of the complaint.

An example cited in the report involves a complaint to the ICO in April 2005 about West Yorkshire police’s failure to release reports about gun related crime.

The ICO investigation began in January 2006 and some extra information was released during the investigation. However its final decision, requiring additional disclosure, was not issued until March 2009, almost four years after the complaint had been made.