ICO takes regulatory action against three forces under the FoI Act
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken action against three police forces for “continued failings” to meet their obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA).
City of London Police has been issued with an enforcement notice for its Freedom of Information (FoI) failings, while Staffordshire Police and Dorset Police have been given practice recommendations setting out improvements they can make to better comply with their legal obligations under the Act.
ICO Head of FoI Complaints and Appeals, Phillip Angell, said: “People have the legal right to promptly receive information they’re entitled to. This right is important as transparency and accountability are fundamental to our democracy.
“As the regulator of the FoIA, we support public authorities to be transparent and accountable about the decisions they make and the public money they spend. Where authorities let people down by failure to comply with the law on responding to information requests, we can and will take regulatory action so people’s rights are upheld.”
The ICO regularly reviews information about FOI performance published on the National Police Chiefs’ Council website. In April 2024, it noticed that the recent FoIA compliance statistics from City of London Police were absent so the ICO wrote to the force to ask for them.
After a “significant delay”, the force responded that its average compliance rate in the financial year 2023/24 was 68 per cent, which the ICO considers to be low.
City of London Police also had a large, rising backlog of older requests it had yet to respond to, said the ICO. From June 2023 to date, the ICO dealt with 12 complaints about the force, which involved timeliness issues.
The force told the ICO the issues had been caused by “staffing challenges” at the same time as an increase in the number and complexity of FoI requests.
The ICO said: “The enforcement notice orders the force to devise and publish an action plan in the next 30 days, which must detail how they will comply with their duties to respond to information requests in a timely manner. The force has been given six months to clear the existing backlog.”
The ICO said it has seen an increase in complaints received about Staffordshire Police.
“Of greatest concern is the backlog of aged requests which remain open with the force and that no action plan has been implemented to resolve this,” it said.
A practice recommendation has been issued to the force to support it in improving its information rights practices.
The ICO carried out an FoI audit of Devon and Cornwall Police and Dorset Police (which have a shared FoI service) during which various concerns were found over FoI compliance performance.
The ICO said it continued to monitor FoI performance for the next 12 months, but performance was “still poor”.
“There are concerns both about performance in terms of the time limit for complying with information requests and the time it takes to complete internal reviews,” it said.
“A practice recommendation has been issued to ensure there is transparency about the action being taken by drawing wider attention to the issue.”