Member News
The Freedom of Information Act is being undermined by "severe delays" in the processing of complaints, a report has found.
Campaigners claimed that the Information Commissioner's Office took an average of 19.7 months to issue a formal decision notice.
Five per cent of cases took more than three years to reach a formal decision, the Campaign for Freedom of Information said.
And 46 per cent of cases took between one and two years to process, in its report which analysed almost 500 decision notices issued during 18 months before the end of March 2009.
It also found that on average complaints would only be processed eight months after being received, one case had taken 22 months prior to investigation.
Campaigners concluded that delays had been "sufficiently serious and widespread to represent a threat to the FOI Act's effectiveness and public confidence in it".
The report's authors said a delay in reaching decisions of two to three years means that even if information is then disclosed, "it may no longer be of interest or use to the requester".
The Information Commissioner's Office said public authorities must be willing to release more information to provide proactive disclosure.
And it said 10 per cent of cases had resulted in a decision notice, taking "longer to resolve than we would like".
"Despite the improvements already made with additional funding from the Ministry of Justice, the popularity of FOI means that the number of complaints we are receiving is outstripping forecasts," a spokesman said.
"We continue to make changes to resolve the increasing numbers of complaints as quickly and efficiently as possible within the resources available to us."
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
M Cox
4th Jul 2009 at 1:24 pm