‘Unacceptable’ delays in FoI decisions

The Information Commissioner has revealed his office is carrying out an investigation into some public bodies’ compliance with Freedom of Information (FoI) request deadlines, amid concerns over “unacceptable” delays.

Peter Tyndall announced the investigation at the launch of his office’s 2018 annual report.

Mr Tyndall said there is an “unacceptable” number of cases where public bodies failed to make a decision within the required timeframe when an FoI request is received.

Public bodies failed to issue a decision at either the initial decision-making stage or internal review stage in 28% of all cases accepted by the Commissioner’s Office.

“My office has come across a number of cases where the FoI body argued that it was unable to make a decision within the required period due to the high volume of FoI requests on hand,” the report found.

“While this may have been the case, it is unacceptable for such bodies to simply allow such resourcing issues to persist,” said Mr Tyndall.

Overall, the number of FoI requests made in last year rose 8.5% on the number of requests in 2017, to 36,896.

Requests have risen by almost a third (32%) since 2015 when fees for making an FoI request were abolished.

A total of 10,706 FoI requests were made to the HSE, making it the public body with the most requests in 2018.

Some 543 applications for review of decisions of public bodies were made to the Commissioner’s Office in 2018. Under Section 23 of the FoI Act, the commissioner can issue notices to public bodies if he feels their refusal of a request is not adequately explained.

Last year, such notices were issued to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation; the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection; the Department of Justice and Equality; the HSE; Cork City Council; Dublin City Council; Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council; and the Defence Forces.