🚨Our evidence to the @CommonsPACAC Greensill inquiry calls for the #FOI Act to be strengthened:
📝cfoi.org.uk/2021/06/campai…
📝cfoi.org.uk/2021/06/campai…
It says without #FOI the extent of the company’s efforts to persuade the government to provide it with financial support, and the extraordinarily insistent lobbying by the former prime minister David Cameron may not have been uncovered, let alone documented in such detail.
It adds that the #FOI Act contains the elements of a highly effective tool to probe lobbying but it needs to be strengthened and more vigorously enforced.
And highlights 3 issues that need to be addressed:
1️⃣The #FOI Act's limited application to information held by public sector contractors
2️⃣Govt plans to exclude 2 new bodies from FOI, a move which suggests that more may follow
3️⃣The substantial delays in responding to requests
1️⃣The #FOI Act's limited application to information held by public sector contractors
2️⃣Govt plans to exclude 2 new bodies from FOI, a move which suggests that more may follow
3️⃣The substantial delays in responding to requests
The submission contains a new survey of the delays at each stage of the #FOI process.
We examined the time taken to deal with the last 20 tribunal cases involving govt depts dealt with by the First-tier Tribunal before the first pandemic lockdown in March 2020.
We examined the time taken to deal with the last 20 tribunal cases involving govt depts dealt with by the First-tier Tribunal before the first pandemic lockdown in March 2020.
We found:
🔔Depts took up to 610 working days (a staggering 2.5 yrs) for their initial response to #FOI requests
🔔Only 9 of the 20 requests were answered in the standard 20 w.d. period
🔔The average between making the request and receiving a tribunal decision was about 2 years
🔔Depts took up to 610 working days (a staggering 2.5 yrs) for their initial response to #FOI requests
🔔Only 9 of the 20 requests were answered in the standard 20 w.d. period
🔔The average between making the request and receiving a tribunal decision was about 2 years
This shows how common & significant #FOI delays were even *before* the pandemic. A dept that deliberately sought to avoid releasing contentious information at a sensitive time would barely stand out against the backdrop of routine delays.
Authorities may be unconcerned about breaching #FOI time limits, having observed the lack of repercussions for those who do so. A 2019 tribunal decision referred to an @ICOnews investigation ‘hampered by delays on the part of @cabinetofficeuk which bordered on the contemptuous’.
We call for:
1️⃣@ICOnews to make use of enforcement notices – a powerful tool at its disposal which it has rarely employed.
2️⃣Greater funding for @ICOnews #FOI work.
3️⃣FOIA time limits to be strengthened, as recommended by two major inquiries.
cfoi.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
1️⃣@ICOnews to make use of enforcement notices – a powerful tool at its disposal which it has rarely employed.
2️⃣Greater funding for @ICOnews #FOI work.
3️⃣FOIA time limits to be strengthened, as recommended by two major inquiries.
cfoi.org.uk/wp-content/upl…
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