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Fighting FOIA with FOIA

Freedom of information statistics for 2014.

The latest annual data not only tells us how many freedom of information requests departments received and how they dealt with them, but also the number of reviews and appeals to the Information Commissioner. Gavin Freeguard looks through the numbers.

The number of freedom of information requests made to government bodies has fallen over the last year.

46,806 freedom of information requests were made of ‘monitored bodies’ in 2014. This was the lowest number of requests since 2010 (43,921). This is partly due to fewer requests being made to ‘government departments’ – the number fell from just over 35,000 in 2013 to nearly 31,000 in 2014. (These ‘departments’ – as classified by the Ministry of Justice, which publishes the figures – actually include a number of their arm’s-length bodies, too.) The number of requests to ‘other organisations’, which includes bodies like the Health and Safety Executive, National Archives and Ofsted under MoJ’s definition, also fell (from 16,517 in 2013 to 15,815 in 2014). For the rest of our analysis, we look at the 16 ministerial departments and one non-ministerial department (HMRC) our work tends to focus on, and the Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales Offices, as defined by MoJ for these statistics. DWP received more requests than any other government department in 2014.
DWP (4,667) and MoJ (4,441) received the most requests in 2014, while DfID (426) and the territorial offices (Northern Ireland Office 191, Scotland Office 154 and Wales Office 115) all received under 500.
Looking at the quarterly figures, we can see that DWP and MoJ have been the two departments with the most requests in each quarter in 2014, though both have fallen over the course of the year. They have also emerged from a pack of five departments – DWP, MoJ, MOD, DfT, HO – that have received a noticeably higher volume of requests throughout the course of this parliament (since 2010). DH experienced a near-trebling of requests in Q1 2012, as controversial new policies were introduced. In 2014, the Department of Health responded to all of its requests ‘in time’, while DCLG had the worst record on timeliness.
DH answered all 1,720 of the requests it received in 2014 ‘in time’ – either within the statutory 20 day response limit, or with a permitted extension. Two departments answered under 80% of their requests in time – Defra and DCLG (both around 76%). Defra’s response rate for the final quarter of 2014 was just 58%, continuing a decline we noted in our previous analysis. HMRC and the Cabinet Office withheld information in full in response to more than 50% of their requests.
Departments can respond to requests by granting them in full, withholding the information in part or withholding the information in full. HMRC fully withheld requested information in 66% of cases, closely followed by the departments responsible for the transparency agenda (Cabinet Office, 62%) and Freedom of Information (MoJ, 48%). The Scotland Office (85%) and Department for Transport (77%) granted the highest percentage of requests in full.
There may be very good reasons for withholding information, and there are a number of exceptions under the Freedom of Information Act that departments can use. Across government as a whole, the exception deployed the most – five times more than any other – is the one relating to ‘personal information’. HMRC made use of the ‘prohibitions on disclosure’ exception more than any other exception in 2014, while the ‘formulation of government policy’ exception was the one used most by the Cabinet Office. Requesters dissatisfied with a department’s response can get their requests internally reviewed – the percentage of requests being internally reviewed has increased by just over 1.5% since 2010.
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, if a requester is dissatisfied with the response they get, they can ask the department concerned for an ‘Internal Review’. If the requester is still dissatisfied after that, they can appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). In 2014, 5.59% of all requests (one in 20) were taken to internal review, up from 3.94% (one in 25) in 2010. The number of requests making it all the way to the Information Commissioner has gone up from 0.52% in 2010 to 0.84% in 2014 – put differently, 13% of internal reviews were taken to the ICO in 2010, compared to 15% in 2014. DWP has the highest percentage of its requests taken to internal review, and the Cabinet Office the highest percentage appealed to the Information Commissioner.
Given DWP receives more requests than any other department, it is unsurprising that it has to handle more internal reviews than any other (628). But it also has the highest percentage of its requests go to internal review – 13.5%, just ahead of the Cabinet Office on 13%. The Cabinet Office has a greater percentage of requests go to the ICO than any other department – 3% (51 requests).
DWP has had a greater percentage of its requests go to internal review than any other department every year since 2012. That year, more than one in six of all requests to DWP went to review – dissatisfaction with the handling of the original complaint has fallen since then. The Ministry of Defence has had a greater percentage of decisions overturned at internal review than any other department…
21% of internal reviews at MoD overturned the original decision (18 out of 36), more than any other department. DfT, MoJ, Defra and DWP also had more than 10% of their reviewed decisions overturned. MoD also had the largest percentage of decisions that were upheld only in part – 34% – meaning more than half of its original decisions were overturned in some way. …while DfT, DfE and DH have had the greatest percentages overturned on appeal to the Information Commissioner.
Across government, 395 decisions were appealed to the Information Commissioner in 2014. This means that we are dealing with very small numbers when looking at some individual departments. Nonetheless, the Department for Transport had the greatest percentage of decisions overturned by the ICO (36%) followed by the Department for Education (29%) and Department of Health (25%). Whitehall Monitor will continue to analyse how departments respond to freedom of information requests over the next Parliament. And with both the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos committing to extending FoI – to private companies providing public services – the composition of the next government could affect just how many requests we’ll be analysing.

Publisher
Institute for Government

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