The Department for Education has been ordered to respond more quickly to freedom of information (FOI) requests or face enforcement action, after admitting to missing the deadline in up to a quarter of cases.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has rapped the department for a “declining level of performance overall in terms of the timeliness of its responses to requests for information” since 2019.
National statistics show the DfE responded to less than 80 per cent of requests within the statutory timeframe of 20 working days in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
In November last year, the DfE told the ICO that it was responding to “just 75 per cent of requests within the required time limit”. One response “was reported as being more than 12 months overdue at January 2024”.
