Liverpool City Council has made improvements to its Freedom of Information (FOI) request system resulting in a commendation from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The improvements came after the issuing of a “Practice Recommendation” last year, following concerns about the council’s performance. Measures taken include clearing the backlog of cases, bringing in additional resources, shortening and streamlining responses, undertaking a peer review with London’s Camden borough and achieving an 88% response rate within the 20-day statutory period.
A rate of 90% is required to remove the “Practice Recommendation” completely and the council must also make information request statistics available online by end-February. A report summarising the improvements will be considered by the Audit Committee on 23 January.
Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member responsible for Law and Governance, Councillor Ruth Bennett, stated: “We are absolutely committed to being as open and transparent as we can and a great deal of hard work has gone into improving our response to Freedom of Information requests over the last six months. Improving our systems and processes so that we provide timely and appropriate responses is a key part of our improvement journey. We are committed to ensuring the improvements are sustained in the longer term, providing an effective and efficient service.”
The ICO will impose an enforcement notice on any public authority failing to comply with a “Practice Recommendation”
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