Thread by @CampaignFoI

Before the pandemic, @ICOnews had been moving towards issuing enforcement notices against public authorities repeatedly breaching #FOI time limits. 1/11

In November 2019 an #FOI enforcement notice was drafted against an authority in the police & justice sector which had 900 outstanding requests 3 months earlier. Because of significant improvements it was not issued. 2/11

In January 2020 @ICOnews proposed issuing an enforcement notice against the Met Police, requiring it to clear all #FOI requests over 6 months old by 31 March 2020. 3/11

In September 2019 it was considering issuing enforcement notices against @Cumbriapolice (possibly the body with 900+ late requests) and @yourcroydon. There was also “continuing engagement" with the @ukhomeoffice & @educationgovuk over the lateness of their #FOI replies. 4/11

.@ICOnews had asked five other government departments (DBEIS, MoD, DIT, GLD & MHCLG), 7 police forces and 20 London Boroughs to draw up ‘Action plans’ to answer more #FOI requests on time. 5/11

A later progress report, indicates 5 government departments, 11 police forces and 22 London Boroughs were being monitored because of failure to meet #FOI time limits. 6/11

.@ICOnews had also produced ‘Regulatory Action Decision Reports’ on 5 police forces and 3 London Boroughs, 2 reports on good practice and an outline report on the police sector. None have been published. #FOI 7/11

These details are revealed in an @ICOnews response to an #FOI requester on 27 May 2020. Although the ICO says the authorities are not being named, some are identified in unredacted versions of the same documents released at the same time. 8/11

Naming the authorities would have increased pressure for #FOI improvements and confidence in the ICO. The details refer to Q2 & Q3 of 2019/20. More recent details are not available. 9/11

The disclosures show that @ICOnews had at last been proposing a robust #FOI enforcement approach. The pandemic appears to have brought it to a halt. 10/11

Its #FOI response states that the approach was changed this month, is now “out of date” and that the ICO will now on “be concentrating on producing thematic reports, our FOI self-assessment toolkit, and sharing good practice”.
whatdotheyknow.com/request/insigh…

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