ICO dissatisfied with IPCC response to FoI requests

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) must respond to overdue freedom of information (FoI) requests by the end of September following the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) dissatisfaction at plans to handle the backlog.

The ICO issued the IPCC with an enforcement notice last week, which revealed that 69 FoI requests had not been resolved within the legal time-frame.

The IPCC has repeatedly failed to respond to requests in line with the Freedom of Information Act, the ICO said, and a number of complaints had been made to it regarding the IPCC’s failure to respond to information requests within the 20-day time limit.

In March this year, the IPCC contacted the ICO to make it aware of a backlog of 69 overdue FoI requests and set out a plan for how it intended to clear the backlog by September. The ICO acknowledged the impact an unexpected 40 per cent rise in requests had and approved the IPCC’s plans for clearing the backlog, including seconding two members of staff to the FoI team and employing an additional member of staff.

The enforcement notice now issued by the ICO requires the IPCC to respond to requests which are overdue by September 30, 2010, either with the information requested or with a valid refusal notice. The IPCC is also required to resolve the cases referred to the ICO within 35 calendar days.  

Graham Smith, Deputy Commissioner of the ICO, said: “I am concerned that the IPCC has denied people access to information by repeatedly failing to respond to requests in line with the Act. The Act gives individuals important rights to access information held by public authorities and despite the current strain on resources, all public authorities must remember their responsibilities under the Act.

This enforcement notice serves as a strong signal to all public authorities that failure to respond is unacceptable. I am pleased that the IPCC reported the difficulties it was facing to us and hope that it will treat this notice with the urgency it requires by putting in place the necessary steps to answer all FoI requests in compliance with the Act.”

If the IPCC fails to meet the demands set by the ICO, the matter could be referred to the High Court, where it may be dealt with as a contempt of court.

The IPCC has said it is aware of the ICO’s decision to issue an enforcement notice and stated: “We told the ICO in March of this year that we were facing difficulties in responding to FoI and Data Protection Act (DPA) requests within the timescales laid down, because of a heavy and sustained rise in requests and the loss of key staff.

“We set out our plan for addressing the problem in a structured way over the next six months and had a constructive dialogue with ICO about it. We have brought in additional staff temporarily, and over the last eight weeks we have made significant inroads into the outstanding work, answering around twice as many FoI and DPA requests as we received in the same period. We are on track to be meeting deadlines again by the end of September.”