40,000 freedom of information requests made last year

The number of freedom of information requests increased by 42% between 2015 and 2019.

Almost 40,000 requests were made last year, which is 8% more than in 2018.

There has been a steady increase since up-front fees were abolished in October 2014.

Information commissioner Peter Tyndall says people look for information from many public bodies.

“Just over half of the requests come from clients of public bodies, so they’re people looking for information about the body they’re dealing with,” he said.

“About a quarter of [the requests] came from journalists.

“The requests are in respect of a wide range of public bodies but I suppose the biggest single one that we would see would be the HSE.”