{"id":20086,"date":"2022-09-30T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T12:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/two-government-departments-reprimanded-by-uk-data-watchdog"},"modified":"2022-09-30T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T12:03:00","slug":"two-government-departments-reprimanded-by-uk-data-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/two-government-departments-reprimanded-by-uk-data-watchdog","title":{"rendered":"Two government departments reprimanded by UK data watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Two government departments have been reprimanded by a watchdog for not responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time.<\/p>\n

It is the first time in seven years the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) has issued an FOI enforcement notice.<\/p>\n

The Department for International Trade (DIT) had the worst response rate across all government departments.<\/p>\n

Action was also taken against the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).<\/p>\n

The ICO is an independent watchdog. Its central aim is to promote openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.<\/p>\n

It has issued this latest action against the DIT and BEIS for what it calls \u201cpersistent failures\u201d to respond.<\/p>\n

It said the action comes as it renews its approach to regulating the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which commits to taking action against public authorities with consistently poor performance.<\/p>\n

John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, said: \u201cAccountability and transparency in the work of public authorities is fundamental to democracy and it is the ICO\u2019s role to ensure that people\u2019s right to access information is protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI advise public authorities to take note and learn lessons from the action we have taken today, as we will be making greater use of our powers under the Act to drive good practice and compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

FOI consultant Martin Rosenbaum told the BBC this was a welcome decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the kind of firm and determined action which has been badly needed to tackle serious failings on FOI in government departments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should make it clear to the public authorities with the worst records on FOI compliance that there are limits to what they can get away with.<\/p>\n

If the new Commissioner continues to show much greater determination and effectiveness in enforcing the FOI Act, it will make a big difference to improving how the system can work in practise for the public benefit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Department for International Trade<\/p>\n

The ICO said DIT was late answering more than half of requests from January to March.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s response times declined in 2021 despite no significant increase in requests or known resource issues at the department.<\/p>\n

The ICO said the delays were \u201csimply due to internal process failings, rather than more significant problems\u201d.<\/p>\n

The department has been told it must respond to any outstanding requests older than 20 working days within 35 calendar days of the enforcement notice.<\/p>\n

It should also publish an action plan formalising measures to mitigate any future delays.<\/p>\n

Failure to comply with the notice could lead to the department being found in contempt of court, it has been warned.<\/p>\n

A DIT spokesperson said: \u201cWe are fully committed to our transparency obligations and responded to over 500 FOI requests received last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to evaluate and improve our internal processes and will respond to the ICO in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy<\/p>\n

BEIS was told to improve its performance, after it \u201cconsistently failed to respond to a significant number of the information access requests received within the statutory time limit\u201d.<\/p>\n

BEIS has had a 55% increase in requests since 2020, but the ICO found the department\u2019s internal procedures were the cause of many responses being delayed, as well as the volume increases.<\/p>\n

The ICO said that because of mitigations by BEIS and its positive engagement with the watchdog, it was only issued with a practice recommendation rather than an enforcement notice.<\/p>\n

But the regulator said an enforcement notice could be issued if performance does not improve.<\/p>\n

A BEIS spokesperson said: \u201cWe are committed to handling requests in a timely way while managing this alongside tackling the energy crisis and driving economic growth, and we are engaging with the ICO\u2019s office on the next steps.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Two government departments have been reprimanded by a watchdog for not responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time. It is the first time in seven years the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO) has issued an FOI enforcement notice. The Department for International Trade (DIT) had the worst response rate across all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-20086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo government departments reprimanded by UK data watchdog - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/two-government-departments-reprimanded-by-uk-data-watchdog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two government departments reprimanded by UK data watchdog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. 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