ICO gets Cabinet Office, MoD and Brum to promise FoI turnaround

UK privacy watchdog The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has told a number of public sector bodies they have to up their game around dealing with Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

It's just concluded a three month exercise in which it audited over 30 authorities' responses to such enquiries, in many cases specifically after concerns were raised about organisational performance. As a result two key central government entities, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence and Europe's biggest local government body, Birmingham City Council, have all had to commit to better response profiles to FoI, with the trio signing undertakings to change their ways.

The ICO says if they fail to meet the news standards they could face regulatory action.

In recent weeks four local authorities - Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Westminster and Wolverhampton - have also agreed to improve their performance.

Information commissioner Christopher Graham said: "We've now had written assurances that a clear plan of action will be put in place by the public authorities that caused us most concern. I'm satisfied that this will now happen but do not rule out taking further action if needed.

"Timely responses to initial requests are key to an effective access to information regime. These firm commitments to improvement are very welcome. We are seeing good results from the ICO's monitoring exercise and it's essential that the improving trend continues," he added.

ICO is also scrutinising the performance of another set of public authorities after concerns were raised about delays in responding to FOI requests: City of London Police, Welsh Assembly Government, the Department for Education and a number of as yet unnamed Town Halls.