A media report, claiming that responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made to the York Council cost on average £700 each, was wrong the authority has admitted.
Ironically it took another FOI request to reveal the real figure of £137.
The Council claims that the mistake was due to an error in a press release that it issued.
£715 was the maximum cost for processing a request.
The Councils FOI web page is poor lacking even an on line form on which to record requests.
Since it was under LibDem control in 2010, the Council has, however, routinely published on its web site the answers to the FOI requests that it has processed.
The Council’s Audit committee is due to consider the FOI processes next Wednesday.
It will hear that the number of FOI requests has escalated since Labour took control of the Council and adopted a “behind closed doors” decision making regime. The number of requests increased from 804 in 11/12 to 1384 in 13/14 (72%).
81% of the requests were responded to within the 20 day deadline.
98 dissatisfied residents asked for their requests to be reviewed and 93 went as far as complaining to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
In 40 cases the ICO found against the Council.
The types of information requested from the Council varies a lot.
- Some is commercially motivated with potential tenderers seeking information on upcoming contracts.
- Others are routine trawls for information from vested interests. These would include companies flowing up “no next of kin” deaths as well as unclaimed Business rates.
In both these cases the Council should routinely publish on its web site the information that is available. That would be much cheaper than responding to individual request for information.
Many of the requests though reflect the interest that residents have in the way that the Council is being managed.