ICO issues FOI Undertakings to six public authorities

The Welsh Government, Kent County Council, Cornwall Council, East Lancashire NHS Trust, Nottingham City Council and North Somerset Council have signed Undertakings, which commit them to making improvements to their FOI compliance, the ICO announced on 20 March. The issue at stake with all these councils is the time they take to respond to FOI requests. In several cases, lack of appropriate training was identified as one of the reasons behind delays.

The ICO monitored certain public authorities’ FOI compliance between 1 April and 30 June 2011. The ICO has welcomed improvements made by the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office in terms of response times to FOI requests. Both organisations have now improved their response times with over 85% of information requests being answered within the time limit of 20 working days.

See the Undertakings at http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/taking_action/foi_eir.aspx#undertakings