Is limiting Freedom of Information complaints a way of dealing with AI ‘overload’?
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories…
AI is generating a lot more FOI requests and complaints. And some of those tend towards longer and more involved (ChatGPT isn’t know for its brevity or accuracy).
Mostly, it lowers the bar to doing things.
Good for individuals with an interest in how their local services and questions they previously didn’t know how to get answers to. ICO polling found one in eight people had made an FOI request after AI suggested it when they were researching something. Good for helping people make complaints about poor quality refusals that might have escaped review before.
Bad for making it easier to send multiple requests – whether repeated rambling campaigning ones or vast numbers automatically triggered by public bodies’ regular actions. Bad for dashing off a quick internal review/complaint to the Commissioner full of hallucinated case law.
Complaints to the ICO over the past 12 months rose 16% in Q1, 38% in Q2, and then 60% in Q3 and Q4. Historically, they rose 20-25% every five years. It’s currently taking eight months to allocate non-priority complaints to case officers for investigation. Its projecting by the end of this financial year it will take about 16 months to allocate a case.
What to do about the extra work?
The Scottish Information Commissioner could restrict the number of FOI appeals from individual requesters under ‘live’ investigation to five. Other appeals would be held back until those were resolved.
This wouldn’t be a blanket restriction. The Commissioner said it would only be applied where there was a pattern of submissions that were likely to have a negative impact. This could be where AI appears to have been involved in submitting lots of reviews and appeals with not much human involvement.
The Scottish Information Commissioner has seen an 83% increase in appeals, up from 593 appeals in 2024/25 to 1,084 to 2025/26.
This included 120 appeals from two individuals in two months that appeared to be AI-generated.
For context, the ICO sent me a email complaining about the terrible pressure I was putting on resources when I sent them 300 complaints in a year!
This is only for the extreme cases…hopefully
The example from the Scottish Information Commissioner is extreme.
There’s only about 550 public bodies covered by FOI in Scotland. Generating 120 complaints in two months probably means a lot of requests to the same public bodies in a short period of time and/or complaining about pretty much every refusal/internal review. It’s not how people generally use FOI.
But its pretty easy to have more than five live investigations going if you send a lot of FOIs.
One request to all UK councils isn’t going to individually put much pressure on their resources. But it could easily lead to 50 to 100 complaints to the ICO (plus half a dozen to the Scottish Information Commissioner) – mostly about timeliness but also poor quality refusals and internal reviews.
With the complaints process under pressure, I’m concerned there would be a temptation to use this rule to hold up complaints from frequent requesters. The complaints process is likely to get slower and more frustrating anyway (see above), it might seem like a good idea to make it more so to further discourage requests and complaints.
The ICO has previously suggested I might like to reduce pressure on them by sending requests less often and sending them to fewer places.
I may have pointed out that the way to reduce complaints wasn’t asking people to stop making them, and the ICO did actually have some power (and, you know, a statutory duty) to improve how public bodies comply with the Act.
Does AI actually need special rules?
The 120 cases used in the example were subsequently closed prior to reaching investigation. So they wouldn’t even have been covered by this new rule.
There’s no further details given as to why. They may not have been valid complaints. The Commissioner can also refuse to investigate complaints deemed frivolous or vexatious.
So if the massive deluge of AI-generated complaints wouldn’t have been dealt with by the special new rule for dealing with a massive deluge of AI-generated complaints, is it actually needed?
The FOI Acts in the UK are probably better placed to deal with mass AI-generated requests than others.
‘What if someone sends loads of requests, possibly to waste time and be annoying’ was at least considered during the drafting of the Acts. As a result, public bodies can combine multiple requests sent to them in a short period of time (which may trigger a refusal on cost grounds) or refuse them as vexatious.
The most egregious examples of FOI request slop can probably already be dealt with using these things.
But what about an increase in individuals sending AI-assisted requests that are specific and reasonable enough (if a little keen on pointless boilerplate about the duty to advise and assist) to need an answer?
What about if, instead of people just waiting forever for an overdue request to be answered, more people ask AI about what to do with about it and get encouraged to make a (valid) complaint?
An alternative might be more openness (in the hope that AI might send people to the answer, rather than suggesting making an FOI request). And, while you might not be able to discourage doomed AI-generated complaints based on non-existent case law, you might be able to reduce ones from humans with better quality responses.
On the other hand…
Is the future of FOI AI bots sending Section 17 refusal notices to requests generated by AI bots?
One of the potential uses for access to Copilot Studio, which allows the building and use of automated AI agents, is processing freedom of information (FoI) requests.
Give it a bit and there’s probably an FOI request in whether this actually happens.
Freedom of Information costs claim fails
Former BBC journalist and British Journalism Award nominee Barnie Choudhury had been facing a claim of £14,270.70 from the appointments body for judges in relation to enforcement action over a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) FOI decision.
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) had been ordered to disclose information by the tribunal. However, Choudhury believed not all of the required information had been released. He applied to the tribunal to certify an offence of contempt.
He later withdrew his action, saying he had enough information to continue reporting, “even though the JAC had not fully complied with the decision notice”. The JAC says it complied with the original order and provided additional information.
The JAC then launched a claim for costs saying Choudhury “acted unreasonably” by starting the contempt of court proceedings.
Reasonable and unreasonable
The FTT that heard the case found Choudhury had not acted unreasonably in starting the contempt claim as he genuinely believed not all the relevant information had been included in the response. Given that view, his only way to seek enforcement of the order was to pursue a contempt claim.
It also found he’d not acted unreasonably in not withdrawing the claim earlier. The JAC had said this had caused it to incur costs preparing a case. The tribunal said it “was an unfortunate oversight” that Choudhury hadn’t read and acted on a key email earlier as he’d been on holiday when it was sent.
The FTT did find Choudhury acted unreasonably in his conduct of proceedings. In correspondence and contempt claim he had made allegations of dishonesty, impropriety, misconduct, and racism on the part of the JAC that the FTT considered to be unfounded.
It said the perceived lack of compliance with the order to release requested information was one Choudhury took very seriously, and that the manner and tone of his communications were perhaps influenced by his frustrations.
However, it wasn’t just ”intemperate language” but the repeated unevidenced allegations of impropriety, misconduct and racism, some of which were made at times when he had legal advice and assistance, that were unreasonable behaviour.
But the FTT said the JAC’s costs weren’t the result of how Choudhury conducted himself. They were the result of the application to certify an offence of contempt and the proceeding of that case before it was withdrawn. As Choudhury had acted reasonably in relation to that, the FTT refused to make an order for costs.
Yes, it is acceptable to use the Freedom of Information Act to win arguments
Possibly a bigger win in an FOI fight this week.
The Camelford Arms in Brighton can stay open late during the Pride weekend – until 3am on the morning of Saturday, August 1, until 4am on Sunday, August 2, and until 1am the next morning.
The decision came after a two-and-a-half hour council licensing panel hearing after Sussex Police objected to a temporary event notice (TEN) served by the pub’s owner, Rowbell Leisure.
Rowbell’s head of legal Tony Groom said that the lengthy hearing was a “waste of public money” because the pub was looking to keep to almost the same hours as it has done for Pride for the past 16 years.
Ahead of the hearing the police raised concerns about potential proxy sales to under-age drinkers. Mr Groom submitted a “freedom of information” (FoI) request to Sussex Police asking for details of proxy sales to under-18s and found that there had been no cases in the past four years.
The Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel granted the event notice, saying the pub was regarded as a “good operator” and the police case was not strong based on evidence presented.
Data breach
A reminder of the potentially serious consequences of not properly checking FOI releases for personal data before they get sent out.
The data breach, in August 2023, saw PSNI release spreadsheets containing the names and details of thousands of staff and officers by mistake, in response to an FoI request.
O’Kane had denied the preparation of terrorist acts, having articles in the use of terrorism, including mobile phones and a laptop, having documents or records for use in terrorism, namely two spreadsheets with details on serving PSNI officers and staff, and viewing videos online relating to improvised explosive devices.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Police helicopters
Scotland’s police helicopter is playing a major role in targeting the country’s gangland violence and helping bring those responsible to justice, the Daily Record has revealed. New figures show that use of the force chopper has increased by almost 30 percent in the last three years.
The crew flew 793 hours in 2025 compared to 568 the previous year and 537 in 2023. In the same period the number of ‘deployments’ that were firearms related rose from 39 to 59.
The helicopter deployment figures were released by Police Scotland under Freedom of Information.
Safe homes for babies
The health and wellbeing of hundreds of babies and toddlers is at risk in temporary accommodation, it is claimed, due to unsafe sleeping conditions, overcrowding and a lack of basic necessities, while mothers struggle with food poverty and mental stress.
UK-wide research released earlier this year found 104 children have died in temporary accommodation since 2019, and 76 were under the age of one, according to the National Child Mortality Database.
Cot death and sudden infant death syndrome (Sids) are the most common causes of death among homeless children.
Freedom of information requests reveal that at least seven local authorities do not provide cots for babies and toddlers as standard, including Aberdeen City, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Renfrewshire, Shetland and Orkney councils. This has impacted at least 150 babies over a two year period. One expert claimed these councils were breaching legal duties.
Short staffed
Barnsley Council has spent more than £50m on agency staff since 2021, the Chronicle can reveal.
A Freedom of Information request, seen by the Chronicle, shows children’s services saw the highest amount spent, with more than £26m – half of the overall spend – on that sole directorate.
The 2021/22 calendar year saw the lowest overall spend at just over £5.1m. That figure more than doubled when compared to 2025/26 – which currently stands at £11.1m but the full data has not yet been collected.
Police tracking
Police used vehicle tracking technology to spy on activists as part of a “disruption strategy” to suppress protest during US president Donald Trump’s visit to Scotland, documents released under Freedom of Information laws have revealed.
The files obtained by the Sunday National show that Police Scotland’s “Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit” created instructions for uniformed officers to monitor activists on July 16, 2025 – nine days before Trump landed in Scotland for a visit which lasted from July 25-29.
Maternity care
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde recorded 736 serious adverse events in its maternity and neonatal services between 2019 and 2025, The Herald can reveal.
The figures, obtained under freedom of information, show that of those, 406 involved a death.
Unpaid council tax
New research suggests that at least 1.5 million people were taken to court over unpaid council tax debt last year.
The GMB union revealed freedom of information replies from 200 local authorities across Britain showed that 1.4 million people had been summoned to court in the financial year 2024/25.
Police crashes
West Midlands Police (WMP) has spent more than £15 million fixing its vehicles in the past seven years, it has been confirmed.
In the period from 2019 to 2025, the force states that 3,970 police vehicles were involved in road traffic collisions (RTCs).
During that time, 342 were written off completely due to the damage sustained.
A freedom of information (FOI) request unearthed that in 2025 alone, WMP spent £2,235,432 on repairs to their cars and vans.
Licence renewals
Older drivers in Wales say lengthy delays in renewing their driving licences are leaving them anxious, frustrated and, in some cases, reluctant to get behind the wheel.
While the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) says many straightforward licence renewals can be completed within days, new figures obtained by ITV Wales through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that applications requiring medical assessments are taking longer than the agency’s own 50 working day target.
The response revealed that during the 2025/26 financial year, the average time taken to make a licensing decision in cases requiring investigation of a medical condition was 56.66 working days.
Delay repaid
Almost £3 million has been paid out in compensation since the Caledonian Sleeper was nationalised by the Scottish Government.
But SNP ministers have stressed that the figure accounts for just 3.4 per cent of journeys and that services are occasionally cancelled for safety reasons with the payments made to ensure passengers can return home.
Freedom of Information responses, obtained by the Scottish Conservatives, show that £492,846 was paid out for 30-minute delays, £1,937,022 was paid out for one-hour plus delays, and £296,482 was paid on manual delay repay – totalling more than £2.7m since the service was taken under public ownership in 2023.
E-bikes and e-scooters
The vast majority of police seizures of e-scooters and e-bikes in Northern Ireland are due to the vehicles being uninsured.
At least 37 e-scooters, e-bikes and e-scramblers were seized by the PSNI in the first five months of the year, already more than the whole of last year, and over nine times the number confiscated by officers in 2024.
The numbers were revealed following a Freedom of Information request by the Irish News, and show that just two of the vehicles were seized in 2023, the first available year for which police recorded details of seizures.
Garage thefts
One in ten Brits admits to leaving their garage wide open whilst drinking, which could make this June a bumper month as recorded thefts rise by 10%.
Data compiled by electric garage door specialists Garolla, who submitted a Freedom of Information request to every police force around the country, reveals that garage thefts are rising 13% year-on-year, jumping to more than 11,000 garage burglaries each year.
Police data shows that almost half of thefts from garages are ‘unforced’
Stopped clock
Unfortunate typo in the intro of this one (and they say local journalism is under-resourced).
Three of the four council-owned clocks across town are out of action and have been for some time, including the Town Hall cock (sic).
Ipswich’s public clocks are largely out of action, with three of the four council-maintained timepieces currently not working, according to figures released under a Freedom of Information request.
The four clocks are Christchurch Park Lodge which is not operational, the Town Hall, which has not been functional since December 2025, Holywells Park Stable Block which hasn’t been operational since January 2026 and Christchurch Mansion, which is the only functional council-owned clock.
Sex toys on the tube
“Why are so many people abandoning sex toys on the Tube?”
Well, probably for the same reason other things get left on public transport, people forget to pick up to their shopping as they leave. The bumper haul at Shenfield (four) is probably less a collection of scatterbrained locals with an Elizabeth Line kink, more the end of the line discovery of one person’s misplaced purchases.
A total of 26 sex toys were handed in to TfL from London’s Tube, bus, and train network after being lost last year.
Of these, only six toys ever made their way back to their owners.
Transport for London’s lost property discovered five of the adult sex toys on their own while the majority (21) were found inside a bag or container with other property, a Freedom of Information request revealed.
A total of 88 wigs were found on TfL’s network, with 11 of those being returned to their owners. TfL’s lost property team also discovered two pairs of false teeth and one urn containing ashes in 2025
Image by Volker Thimm on Pexels
