Transport for London has a Freedom of Information response rate most public bodies can only dream of (and that includes the ICO).
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories…
In 2025/26, TfL responded to 99.96% of requests within statutory deadlines, according to a report to its Audit and Assurance Committee. Overall, just two requests went past the deadline (4,769 out of 4,771 were answered in time).
Its target is 100%. In the five years to March 31, 2026, TfL has had an on-time response rate of 99.8%.
The Information Commissioner’s Office also has a target of 100% of requests answered in the statutory deadlines. It managed 97.6%.
Requests to TfL increased to record numbers in 2025/26, up 19.1% from 2024/25. The figures for the first five months of 2026/27 suggest growth might have slowed a little. Requests were actually down 3.4%. So far, just one response had missed the statutory deadline.
About two-thirds (66%) of requests in 2025/26 were answered in full. The most common reasons for refusal is the information is or will be published (29.7% of all FOI exemptions) or because the time needed to respond to the request exceeds 18 hours (26%).
The key to all this seems to be a really good system, and plenty of pro-active publication, which cuts down on doing the same work over and over.
More than 400 requests last year were answered by referring to previously published replies, other published information or by explaining the information was due to be published in the near future.
Replies to all requests are published on a very up-to-date disclosure log. And there’s an actually useful transparency page.
The impact of AI
It’s notable that while AI gets a mention in the TfL report, it’s not for boosting the number of requests.
A deluge of rambling and unclear AI-generated requests has generally been getting the blame for public bodies failing to hit FOI deadlines.
An FOI performance update to Cumberland Council’s business and resources overview and scrutiny committee said people using AI to put together their FOI requests was on the increase. Requests that don’t make sense then need the FOI team to contact requesters for clarification, adding extra time and delays to processing them.
The council answered 79.5% of requests within statutory deadlines in 2025/26. Requests for clarification have no impact on this, as the clock is stopped until everyone has a clue what the request is actually about.
Where an AI-generated increase is affecting TfL is on internal reviews. Review requests were up from 154 in 2024/25 to 224 in 2025/26. And it’s not just more, it’s more complicated.
“There has been a noted increase in the use of artificial intelligence tools by requesters to generate and submit appeals on their behalf, which often contain highly technical and often inaccurate assertions and assumptions.
”This has contributed to an increase in the volume and complexity of managing appeals and we are seeking to mitigate the impact by introducing a template to structure and focus these appeals.”
Freedom of Information Update, TfL Audit and Assurance Committee, September 9, 2026
Obviously, fascinated to see that a template would look like and how it would work (particularly as you couldn’t make requesters use it).
Dealing with AI nonsense in internal reviews
TfL’s experience seems to suggest a well-run FOI request handling system can absorb more (possibly AI-generated) requests. But internal reviews are more of a challenge.
I think, possibly, because most public bodies don’t get many (many should get more, given the quality of responses). So the habit has been to engage with everything in the review request (which now contains more inaccuracies).
But for internal reviews, I’m not sure it matters that much what the requester’s arguments are. They pretty much all boil down to ‘I don’t think the exemption applies here’.
Most of mine fall under:
- you’ve provided no evidence this will take longer than the cost limit
- is this really personal data?
- no, the information requested isn’t on your website
- where’s the public interest test?
- your attempt at the prejudice test is woeful
I can cite lots of case law and ICO guidance, but FOI officers should know it already. So they can probably skip those bits.
The point of the review is to look again at whether the exemptions were properly applied. Answering the ICO’s key questions for investigating complaints is usually a good start.
You might need to engage with any arguments in the complaint that are specifically about the information requested. The key questions are fairly broad, there’s case law for requests for certain types of information, and public interest tests and the prejudice test can need to consider individual circumstances.
But if you completely ignored everything in the internal review request and just focused on following guidance on how to apply an exemption?
You’d be miles ahead of the average FOI officer doing an internal review, as most just do the ignore bit. But you’d probably end up with a decision that you’d be confident defending if needed.
Less impressive response rates
The ICO has issued some more enforcement notices for public bodies failing to respond within the statutory deadlines.
Derby Council’s oldest recorded outstanding request had a request deadline of November 21, 2022. As of the end of July, it had 891 requests overdue, including 335 that had been received over a year ago.
The ICO describes it as an “exceptional level of systemic non-compliance”. Derby Council’s response rate in the year to July 24 was 29%.
Requests are overdue because information hadn’t been received from council departments, because responses are waiting sign-off by a senior manager, or because they’re ready to go but no-one had sent them out!
Northamptonshire Police attempted to just not have a backlog. By deciding to mark overdue requests as done.
It decided at the end of 2025 to close approximately 190 historic cases. Without asking requesters if they still wanted an answer.
Which isn’t a thing you can do. So it’s now re-opened those to answer properly.
In mid-June, Northamptonshire Police had 314 overdue requests, 200 that were over a year old. It then found 52 more in an old system few people had access to. The oldest was due a response on July 4, 2024.
Overall, around a quarter of police forces (11 out of 45) have received an enforcement notice for not responding quickly enough since December 2023.
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service also received an enforcement notice. Because it made the clearly brilliant decision to get Northamptonshire Police to handle its FOIs. And Northamptonshire Police also applied its creative approach to clearing overdue requests to those FOIs as well.
The Scottish Information Commissioner opened a Level 2 intervention into the University of Dundee over non-compliance with FOI, with just 14% of requests responded to on time in the final quarter of 2025.
Keeping an eye on the time to answer a request.
Putney.News has set up a tracker for how long it takes for it to get an answer to an FOI request.
Which, quite often, is quite a while.
The tracker uses information from WhatDoTheyKnow, where the requests have been made. And it’s a neat way to display information about what questions have been asked, what responses have been received and the issues with using FOI to get information.
The time tracking is somewhat simplistic – it just counts working days from the request being made. So, it suggests TfL might not be as good at answering requests as it makes out.
But these were EIR requests answered within extensions to 40 working days due to complexity (there may be arguments about the validity of extensions but the responses weren’t technically overdue). I’m also not sure it’s capturing time taken to answer requests where clarification was requested accurately either.
Does a response need to take 200 days?
For some of the overdue requests, things may have gone on longer than they’ve needed to.
The ICO is pretty good on overdue request complaints. As most are straightforward to deal with – identify whether time limit hasn’t been met (usually pretty easy), send 10 working day informal deadline for public body to get it sorted, follow up with decision notice if a response still hasn’t been sent – dealing with them quickly at least somewhat keeps the closure rate on complaints up.
At this point, anyone who’s sent a reminder on their overdue request (to check it didn’t get eaten by the spam filter or isn’t stuck in the ‘ready to go’ outbox (see above)) should give it a few days then send a complaint directly to the ICO. It’s more likely to get things moving (or a decision notice which should make answering a priority). And it means poor performance is more likely to be picked up resulting in a practice or enforcement notice.
However, WhatDoTheyKnow suggests asking for an internal review for an overdue request. In Scotland, you need to do this, but in England, Wales and Northern Ireland you can skip straight to the ICO (which WhatDoTheyKnow suggests doing on its help page).
This is the better option, because if they’re not answering your request, they’re probably going to take ages to respond to an internal review request (if at all). Which, appears to be a problem Putney.News has hit, and just means two requests going nowhere instead of one.
Should the public interest apply more widely?
An interesting Upper Tribunal decision looking at when absolute FOI exemptions might not be quite so absolute.
The decision itself doesn’t actually change anything – it’s likely to fall to other courts to make further rulings. And it would only apply to a particular piece of legislation. But it may raise wider questions about whether there needs to be more of a balance between information access and prohibitions on disclosure.
Absolute exemptions aren’t subject to the public interest test (as opposed to qualified ones that are).
Section 44, prohibitions on disclosure is one and exempts information from release if that would be against the law, contrary to a retained EU obligation or would constitute contempt of court.
Some information was released but other parts were withheld under Section 44 based on Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (ASPA) (which means someone could be jailed for disclosing information given in confidence and obtained as part of carrying out work under that Act).
A right to information
CFI argued Section 44 operating as an absolute prohibition on disclosure along with Section 24(1) of ASPA was incompatible with its right under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights to receive information.
Specifically, it relied on the decision in Magyar Helsinki Bizottság v Hungary (2020), which found there’s a limited right to receive information under Article 10. This right only applies when four criteria are met
- the purpose of the request must be to enable freedom of expression
- the nature of the information sought must provide transparency on the manner of conduct of public affairs and on matters of interest for society as a whole
- the requester must be a journalist or a person such as a non-governmental organisation acting as a “public watchdog”
- the information must be “ready and available” as opposed to requiring data collection by the holder
CFI argued Section 3 of the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 meant the law should be interpreted in a way that was compatible.
The Upper Tribunal found CFI’s Article 10 rights, interpreted in accordance with Magyar, were unjustifiably interfered with, due to the effect of the absolute exemption under Section 44 FOIA read with Section 24 ASPA.
But it said it wasn’t possible for the Tribunal to interpret the law in a way that would make it compatible (not without making changes to the law itself).
The remedy would likely be a declaration of incompatibility under Section 4 HRA, which then makes it the Government’s problem to solve. The Upper Tribunal can’t make such a declaration, so the case is likely to go to the Court of Appeal.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Children’s mental health
Leaders in child health have urged the government to take urgent action on child mental health, as a new report shows an ‘unacceptable’ increase in children as young as six in mental health crisis presenting at accident and emergency (A&E).
The new RCPCH report Children in crisis: mental health pressures in emergency departments presents further evidence of the crisis in children’s and young people’s mental health, based on data obtained from NHS England via a freedom of information (FOI) request.
It shows that 75,491 children and young people aged six to 17 attended A&E with a recorded mental health concern in 2025, which is 36% more than in 2019. And this trend was even greater in younger children, with 62% more children aged six to nine admitted to A&E with mental health concerns in 2025 than in 2019.
No nursing jobs
Nursing graduates in England have been left “stacking shelves” amid a shortage of suitable roles and were blocked from at least a third of entry level nursing jobs last month, according to unions.
A Freedom of Information Act request by the Royal College of Nursing to the NHS Business Services Authority found advertised band 5 nursing and midwifery posts in London fell by 68% between 2019-20 and 2024-25.
Constrained budgets and staffing cuts were blamed for this lack of funded entry level roles in the capital and elsewhere, according to the college.
Forced marriage
At least 100 children aged 12 or younger have been referred to the Home Office’s forced marriage unit in the past five years.
The total includes 27 children up to the age of five, according to fresh data obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
Forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence across the UK and in 2023 the legal age of marriage was raised from 16 to 18 in England and Wales.
Council tax debt
Almost half of local authorities in England and Wales – 48%, or 153 councils – increased their use of bailiffs to collect council tax debt in 2025/26, according to new freedom of information (FOI) research.
The research, conducted by National Debtline as part of its Stop the Knock campaign, also found protections for low-income households have weakened.
Just 26 councils exempt residents receiving Council Tax Support from bailiff action, down from 35 last year.
Dodgy shops
More than nine in ten ‘dodgy shops’ targeted over illegal tobacco or vapes remain open after enforcement action, a new report reveals.
Freedom of Information data obtained by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) shows that more than 4,000 shops had illicit tobacco, cigarettes or vaping products seized in 2025 – almost 1,000 more than in 2024.
Yet only eight per cent of offending premises were temporarily closed in 2025, leaving more than nine in 10 open for business.
Accessible rail replacement services
London Northwestern and West Midlands Railways recorded the largest gap between total and accessibility-compliant rail replacement services among UK operators, according to Freedom of Information data obtained by United Minibuses and Coaches.
The operator recorded 22,581 compliant services out of 23,208 provided between June 2025 and May 2026, around 97.3% compliance, leaving 627 services not recorded as compliant.
It also logged 14 complaints about inaccessible replacement transport during the period. Across the 14 organisations that supplied both total and compliant figures, 188,346 of 188,983 services were recorded as compliant.
Dine-and-dash
Dine-and-dash thefts are on the rise, leaving hospitality businesses out of pocket and prompting questions about customer behaviour.
In response to a BBC Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Norfolk Police data show 60 incidents of diners leaving without paying were reported last year, compared with 29 in 2023.
Just 11 of these resulted in a charge.
Spiking offences
No one has been charged with a spiking offence in Devon and Cornwall since 2023. And only three cases have led to a prosecution since 2020, despite there being at least 45 reports of offences.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that in the last six years there have been 45 reports of a substance being administered with intent to stupify/overpower to allow sexual activity, otherwise known as spiking.
Devon and Cornwall Police said that initial reports may be logged as spiking but subsequent investigations may rule it out – which could account for the low prosecution rate.
Environmental monitoring
Just 54 protected sites, which include national parks, mountains, wetlands, forests, ancient woods and peatlands, were monitored in 2025 by NatureScot, according to details released under freedom of information legislation.
The figure makes up less than three per cent of protected sites, which often support diverse and endangered flora and fauna.
The new data reveals that the extent of monitoring has declined to almost half what it was in 2021, when 97 sites – just over five per cent of the network – were monitored.
NHS complaints
A freedom of information request (FOI) shared exclusively with the LDR service shows that there have been a total of 14,090 complaints made to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, with 4,230 in 2023, 4,734 in 2024 and 4,949 in 2025.
Between 2022 and 2025, 5,762 complaints were fully upheld, 2,012 were partially upheld while 3,759 were not upheld.
The most common complaints received were to do with attitude and behaviour, oral communication, the date for an appointment and clinical treatment.
Staff fined
Drivers of Hampshire County Council vehicles were hit with hundreds of penalty notices, newly released figures show.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that council-owned, operated, leased and hired vehicles received a total of 302 penalty charge notices (PCNs) between January 2025 and June 2026.
Of those, 37 were for speeding offences, while the remaining 265 notices related to parking offences, bus lane or moving traffic contraventions, clean air zone or emissions charges, and toll bridge charges.
Meanwhile, Transport for London staff have racked up over £30,000 in parking fines and road charges in the last year alone, the Local Democracy Reporting Service and MyLondon can reveal.
This includes more than £16,000 for 143 parking fines directly paid to 20 different local authorities across the capital, and £9,460 for PCNs (Penalty Charge Notices) to the network itself.
The information was disclosed after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the network asking for all transactions under £250 made by staff using company cards between April 1 2025 and March 31 2026.
Bin gone
Some 37 litter bins across the Welsh capital have been removed over the last three years with no replacement.
In 2024 the council announced plans to save money by reducing the number of litter bins on residential streets and instead prioritise district centres, parks, bus stops and dog-walking routes. At the time it claimed the bins were not used enough and attracted fly-tipping.
WalesOnline’s Freedom of Information request has now revealed the Cardiff locations where bins have been taken away since 2023 without being replaced.
Flag removal
Freedom of information responses obtained by 1919 Magazine show that at least 774 flags – predominantly Saltires and Union flags – were taken down by local authorities during 2025/26. The previous year, councils recorded only 13 removals.
Councils spent close to £25,000 removing unauthorised flags, although several authorities – including Glasgow City Council – did not provide figures.
The figures also show Saltires and Lion Rampants were removed around five times more often than Union Flags. One Polish flag was recorded too.
Overdue payments
Four West Midlands councils had 937 overdue supplier invoices worth more than £7.1m at the end of July, according to Freedom of Information research by Witan Solicitors.
Warwickshire County Council, Herefordshire Council, Staffordshire County Council and Telford & Wrekin Council reported a combined £7,143,152 in overdue invoices as of 31 July 2026, with 208 of the 937 outstanding invoices overdue for more than 90 days.
Benefits write-off
The DWP lost almost £12m since 2021 to small overpayments valued under £65, according to figures obtained under freedom of information laws.
Debts arising from 645,488 overpayments have been forgiven since 2021-22, figures show.
Taxes
Shock news that people with an income of more than £50,000 a year are subject to the 40% income tax rate (and it’s not like they also have to pay National Insurance).
New figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request by former pensions minister and LCP partner Steve Webb reveal a dramatic rise in the number of people over State Pension age paying higher-rate tax.
The figures show that 1.092 million pensioners are now paying income tax at 40% or more, up from 494,000 in 2021/22.
Stray dogs
The number of stray and abandoned dogs reported on the streets of Norwich has soared by an astonishing 4,000pc in just five years.
Figures from the authority show that just four stray dogs were reported in 2021. Last year, the number was 164.
Of those, 62 were recovered by contractors working for the council. And of those, just nine were returned to their owners, with the others put up for rehoming.
This return rate of 14.5pc is a sharp fall from the previous year, when it was 37.5pc.
The figures were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Festival finances
Highland Council lost almost £206,000 on the one-day Inverness International Blues Festival, according to internal documents – but the local authority still maintains the event came in “on budget”.
The Ross-shire Journal exclusively revealed the event suffered a total loss of £205,942, that figure only being revealed after a stand-off with the council which took three times longer than permitted to respond to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
On a very wet March 28, several top blues acts took to the stage inside a big top at the city’s Northern Meeting Park in front of a crowd of 1,250, organisers having promised “some of the best blues artists in the world”.
Around two months later the council’s events and festivals working group was told what has not been made public before – that the event cost £267,764 to mount, but generated just £61,822.
Photo by Brett Sayles on Pexels
