Issue - meetings

The Committee considered the annual report for 2022-23 on the monitoring of the Council’s performance in dealing with Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests. 

Following a fall in performance standards during 2020-21, largely due to the Covid pandemic lockdown and recent corporate restructures, performance rates for timely delivery of FOI/EIR requests within the 20- working day deadline had since improved over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years.

The Committee noted that the Council had received 691 FOI/EIR requests during the financial year 2022-23. Of these, 92.7% had been responded to within the 20-working day deadline, compared to the very similar figure of 92% for 2021-22. Both of the previous years’ figures had indicated a steady improvement when compared with the 2020-21 financial year when 82% of requests had been answered within the target.  The Council had therefore exceeded the Information Commissioner’s performance indicator of 85%, and the 90% target agreed by Corporate Management Board for two consecutive years.

Furthermore, following the Committee’s request to monitor, as an additional target, response rates dealt with promptly within 10 working days, the report had noted that, during 2022-23, 253 requests (36.5% of the total) had been responded to within 10 or fewer working days.

Questions and comments from the Committee raised the following points:

·      It was suggested that the correspondent groups in the table showing the categories of requester should be in descending order of number of requests

·      It was suggested that each service area should have a target 90% response rate within 20 working days.

·       In response to a query as to when the 20 working days began, the Information Governance Officer confirmed that this was generally taken to be the point at which the request was received by the Council. 

The Committee

RESOLVED: That the improved response rates and officer actions contained within the Freedom of Information Compliance Annual Report for 2022-23 be noted and that the Committee continues to receive regular updates.

Reasons:

·      To ensure that the Committee is kept up to date with developments in the FOI/EIR framework

·      To ensure that the Committee has the necessary information to enable requests for information to be made easily to the Council and properly responded to

·      To assist with learning lessons and improving performance following requests for information made to the Council

The Committee considered the annual report for 2021 on the monitoring of the Council’s performance in dealing with Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests. 

Following a drop in performance rates during 2020, largely due to the Covid pandemic lockdown and corporate restructures, performance rates for timely delivery of FOI/EIR requests within the 20 working day deadline had returned to more normal levels in 2021.

The figure for 2021 (January–November) had been 92%, compared with 80% for 2020.

Questions and comments from the Committee raised the following points:

·       The improvement in response rates was welcomed, and it was pleasing to see that 34% of requests had been responded to within 10 working days.  It was suggested that the Council monitors this as an additional target.

·       In relation to FOI requests from the media, it was noted that these related mainly to ‘round robin’ requests for information from the national media.  Local media requests for information were generally not dealt with through

formal FOI channels, as they usually required a quicker response from the Council.

·       In relation to internal/external reviews, it was suggested that future reports include details of the number of such reviews that were upheld.

The Committee considered a suggestion that, in future, the monitoring and reporting of FOI compliance should be based on the financial year rather than the calendar year which would bring it into line with the current arrangements for corporate performance monitoring.  

The Committee

RESOLVED:

(1)        That the Freedom of Information Compliance Report for 2021 be noted and that the Committee continues to receive six monthly updates.

(2)        That, in future, the monitoring and reporting of FOI compliance should be based on the financial year rather than the calendar year.

Reasons:

·       To ensure that the Committee is kept up to date with developments in the FOI/EIR framework

·       To ensure that the Committee has the necessary information to enable requests for information to be made easily to the Council and properly responded to

·       To assist with learning lessons and improving performance following requests for information made to the Council

The Committee considered the annual report for 2020 on the monitoring of the Council’s performance in dealing with Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests. 

Due to the unprecedented circumstances related to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and recent corporate restructures, the Committee noted that performance rates for the timely response to FOI/EIR requests within the 20 working day deadline had dropped during 2020 to 80%, compared with 94% in 2019.

Circumstances permitting, the aim for 2021-22 would be to return performance rates to previous levels.

Questions and comments from the Committee raised the following points:

·       As part of the work in returning performance rates to their previously high levels, the Information Governance Officer would be producing monthly reports for all directors highlighting those requests nearing the 20 working day deadline.

·       A suggestion as whether the Corporate Management Team could consider a subsidiary response target of, for example, a certain percentage response within 10 working days.

The Committee

RESOLVED: That the Freedom of Information Compliance Report for 2020 be noted and that the Committee continues to receive six monthly updates.

Reasons:

·       To ensure that the Committee is kept up to date with developments in the FOI/EIR framework

·       To ensure that the Committee has the necessary information to enable requests for information to be made easily to the Council and properly responded to

·       To assist with learning lessons and improving performance following requests for information made to the Council