Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Head of Digital Transformation & Customer Engagement providing a quarterly dashboard report into the monitoring of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Environmental Information Requests (EIR), and to update on any decision notices that were provided in this period.

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, a report * from the Head of Digital Transformation & Customer Engagement providing a quarterly dashboard update report regarding the monitoring of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Environmental Information Requests (EIR). It also updated the Committee on any decision notices that had been provided during quarters 1 & 2.

The contents of the report were outlined with particular reference to the following:

·       Bringing the report to the Committee now had allowed officers to capture both the data for Quarter one and Quarter two.

·       483 requests had been made during this period.

·       Of the 483, 4 requests exceeded the 20-working day period statutory time, making the percentage responded to within the statutory time limit, 99.2%. 1 was 21 working days and another took 30 working days. All requests dealt with outside the statutory time limit were due to absences of the relevant staff collating the data.

·       There were 4 Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) cases closed during Quarters 1 and 2. 2 were not upheld, 1 was withdrawn and 1 was upheld.

·       Providing such reports to Members always provided an opportunity to review what the service did and how it did it.

·       A revised disclosure log had been provided on the Council’s website. It was live and being used although the numbers were still relatively low.

·       Work was continuing on the publication scheme.

·       An all Member briefing was being organised on Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Requests (EIR) for 1 December 2025. The appointment would be sent out shortly. This would be online only and start at 5.15pm.

Discussion took place regarding:

·       The disclosure logs on the website referred to ‘attachments’. These by there nature were extremely large in terms of data and it was not manageable to include them on the Council’s website, however, they could be provided upon request. The website explained how to do this.

·       2 officers worked in the FOI/EIR area, although they did not solely deal with FOI and many officers across the Council provided their own responses to requests. The all Member briefing would provide more information regarding the time and costs involved. Specific subjects would not be detailed but examples would be given.

·       It was noted that the service was able to respond over 99% of the time within prescribed timescales.

Note: * Report previously circulated.