City Hall too slow over Freedom of Information requests

Published: 15 April 2011
by JOSH LOEB

THE government sec­recy watchdog has rapped City Hall for taking too long to reveal information. 

The Information Commissioner, who oversees how well public bodies are responding to Freedom of Information requests, has now forced officials to sign a pledge to speed up the process.

Westminster City Council was one of 33 public authorities monitored by the Information Commissioner’s Office last year following complaints about how long they were taking to reply.

Alastair Gilchrist, Westminster council’s strategic director of resources, said: “The number of FOI requests the council receives has nearly trebled since 2007, making Westminster one of the largest FOI recipients in the capital. Consequently, this has had an impact on our response times.

“We acknowledge that we can do better and we have recently carried out a review of our FOI processes and will put measures in place to ensure future requests are dealt with more quickly and efficiently.”