A Yorkshire council which receives more than 1,000 Freedom of Information Act requests a year has pledged to speed up its responses to requests.
Kirklees Council has, like all organisations, seen a large increase in FOI requests since the Act came into force in 2005. Although last year it managed to respond to 85% of requests within the 20 working day limit. That’s a lot better than some other authorities.
The Yorkshire Post report:
A COUNCIL which last year dealt with over 1,000 Freedom of Information requests has drawn up proposals to deal with them quicker.
In 2005-06 Kirklees Council handled 284 requests under the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations which covers requests relating pollution and health and safety.
By 2010-11 this had risen to 876 and last year it hit 1,137.
Last year 962 (85 per cent) of requests were responded to within 20 working days, which is in line with the minimum standard required by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which enforces compliance with the law.