Lewisham LBC has been issued with an enforcement notice after failing to respond to hundreds of overdue Freedom of Information (FOI) Act requests.
At the end of 2022, the council had a total of 338 overdue requests for information, 221 of which were more than a year old and one that was submitted more than two years ago, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The ICO said that the council neglected to tackle the backlog of requests because it was focusing on new requests to improve its compliance with the statutory time limit of 20 working days for a response.
Director of FOI and transparency at the ICO, Warren Seddon, said: ‘By failing to respond to these requests, Lewisham LBC is keeping hundreds of people in the dark about information they have a right to ask for.
‘People need to have confidence in the decisions being made by their local authority and this council’s failure to comply with the law erodes trust in democracy and open government.’
The enforcement notice requires the council to respond to all outstanding requests more than 20 working days old within six months.
Lewisham has also been told to devise and publish an action plan to mitigate any future delays to FOI requests within 35 days.
A council statement read: 'We wholly accept the enforcement notice from the ICO and recognise our current performance in responding to FOI requests is not acceptable.
'We are already taking steps to address this, including bringing in extra staff to focus on resolving older cases.'
