Everyone’s drowning in Freedom of Information requests.
Jump to this week’s Freedom of Information stories…
AI making it easier for people to make requests (and some of the time encouraging them to) and then to complain about the refusals is getting a lot of the blame.
But there’s a lot of old school non-tech problems holding up FOI requests that might be more solvable than trying to defeat AI-generated requests.
An FOI request has revealed 73% of requests to Brighton and Hove Council on 2025/26 were answered in time, down from 90% in 2024/25. By March 31, it had 76 overdue cases in the backlog.
AI gets a mention in the quarterly performance summaries to the council’s Information Governance Board, with the complexity of FOI and Subject Access Request cases increasing, including more sophisticated correspondence using AI.
Non-AI-related FOI hold-ups
- a shortage of staff in the information rights team due to vacancies and long-term sick leave
- Staff in other departments lack time for records management, so answering FOI queries and information searches is slow (so the information rights team is spending lots of time chasing people)
- the removal of printers from the information rights room so people can’t work and print at the same time (can’t leave printouts with personal or confidential info lying around. Easy to pick up straightaway if the printer’s next to you, if it’s not, you’d have to go and stand next to it while it prints)
- Records management issues – poor audit trails for offsite storage facilities meaning problems retrieving records and knowing what’s held, information not transferred out of emails into proper systems (so deleted after 60 days when people leave)
The council is also creating its own problems to some degree. The performance summaries said nervousness around releasing certain information was leading to pressure on the FOI team to agree exemptions.
This is then creating more work when the refusals lead to internal review requests and complaints to the ICO. Internal review requests to Brighton and Hove Council doubled from 70 in 2024/25 to 138 in 2025/26.
The information rights team suggested a cultural shift was needed towards greater confidence in sharing information and accepting managed risks.
Powys Council has also seen its percentage of FOI requests answered within 20 working days drop, from 86% in April to June 2025 to 68% in October to December, before recovering slightly to 71% in January to March this year.
Similarly to Brighton and Hove, the council’s Annual Corporate Self-Assessment Report says delays in FOI responses within some services (Finance, Children’s, Housing, Education, Legal, Planning and Regulatory Services, and Economy and Climate) affected compliance (isn’t that most services?).
It isn’t just UK councils.
In the US, federal agencies processed around 1.6 million requests for documents in the year to September 30, 2025. That was the highest number since officials began releasing comprehensive statistics about FOIA requests 16 years ago, according to government data.
But it released the requested documents, in part or in full, just 47% of the time, a New York Times analysis found, the lowest grant rate since at least 2010.
Federal agencies also accumulated a backlog of overdue requests of nearly 340,000 as of Sep. 30, 2025. Requesters with pending asks waited longer than 240 days on average to hear back from federal agencies, according to the data, though the law requires a response within 20 days.
FOI and AI
One possible solution to increasing requests might be AI. Or the risk is it just ends up with bots sending ever more detached from reality requests and responses to each other.
Pembrokeshire Council is spending £4.95 million on an AI contract. It includes £2.2 million for software licences, £400,000 for cloud computing and telephone usage, £2 million for implementation consultancy and a further £350,000 for business-change support.
AI could be used to help council staff draft documents, summarise records, manage large inboxes, recover unpaid debts and process requests more quickly. It could also be used on work involving children’s Additional Learning Needs plans, adult social-care assessments, direct payments and the monitoring of care providers.
It could also assist with Freedom of Information searches, drafting and redaction.
Plenty of public bodies seems to be trying to incorporate AI into FOI processes to help manage increasing numbers of requests. How useful it actually is remains to be seen.
Pembrokeshire Council says the programme could generate between £3.3 million and £6.7 million in savings, benefits and additional value. It says benefits will be monitored monthly with independent quarterly checks of the calculations.
The Pembrokeshire Herald says it remains unclear how frequently those results will be presented publicly or whether residents will be able to see which claimed benefits represent cash savings and which relate to staff capacity or service improvements.
I think I might know a way they can try and find out though…
Make more Freedom of Information requests redundant
Another way to avoid increasing numbers of FOI requests is to proactively publish more of the information people are looking for.
The ICO’s annual report for 2025/26 is out. FOI complaints rose by over 40% year on year during 2025/26, to nearly 11,000 complaints.
One thing the ICO said it had done was encouraging proactive publication. It also asked public bodies whether proactively publishing information had helped
them manage FOI request volumes. A third agreed (33.5%), while just under a quarter disagreed (23.5%).
Which sounds like it reflects the rather mixed quality of proactive publication. It’s not helpful if it’s limited, hard to find on websites and not up to date. People don’t bother looking if they assume things aren’t published, and if they try and can’t find things they’ll be even less likely to look.
Not being covered by the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t mean no information
This opinion piece on the problems with accessing Dŵr Cymru’s reservoirs for open swimming laments it’s not subject to Freedom of Information rules that might otherwise force the company to disclose information about sites.
But the sceengrab of the company’s website shows Dŵr Cymru acknowledging that “under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), you have the right to request environmental information from us”. And EIR is quite good at forcing companies to disclose information.
I’m not sure if the confusion here is about EIR versus FOI or what EIR covers. But it’s likely quite a bit of the information the campaigners don’t think is accessible would be available under EIR.
Public bodies covered by FOI are covered by EIR. It also covers organisations, including privately-owned companies, that perform functions of public administration. The definition of this mostly rests on case law that found water companies were covered by EIR.
Environmental information is a pretty wide concept. It’s likely a lot of information relating to Dŵr Cymru’s management of the water supply and sewage system would be covered, including questions about how reservoirs are run and their use for swimming.
Freedom of Information and park closures
This time FOI might help keep a play area open, rather than inadvertently contributing to its closure.
Locals have launched a fight to keep a children’s play area at Gregson St in Everton open. The play area, run by Liverpool Council, is currently shut to users with a sign on the equipment saying it has been closed for refurbishment.
A public consultation was held in the play area’s future in November 2024, with letters sent to 300 properties nearby.
According to an FOI submitted to the local authority by Kevin Robinson-Hale, Liberal Democrat campaigner in Everton, just 15 people attended the meeting. Attendees were given three options for the future of the park, to either keep it or repurpose the site and install benches/picnic tables so it could be a place of reflection or a viewpoint.
A third option – to level the site and grass over – proved to be the most popular. The document said: “They all stated that they didn’t want the play area to be replaced or repurposed and would like the area to be grassed over.
“They didn’t want any park furniture as it will only encourage anti-social behaviour and congregating in the area, which they don’t want and which is currently happening. They also stated that the demographic in and around the Gregsons area is mostly older people in assisted living and won’t benefit from it.”
A protest and handing in of a petition at Liverpool Town Hall was planned for this week. Those backing keeping the play area open say it was well used. Those living nearby say they don’t remember being invited to the consultation.
Liverpool Council said it’s still exploring viable options for the future of Gregson’s Park.
This week’s Freedom of Information stories…
Heatwave homelessness
A joint investigation by Big Issue and the Pavement magazine has uncovered major inconsistencies in how councils across England protect people sleeping rough during heatwaves.
Using around 40 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to councils and London boroughs with some of England’s highest rough sleeping populations, the investigation found a patchwork response to the record-breaking late May heatwave.
Responding to Big Issue and the Pavement’s FOI requests, 20 out of the 33 London councils (61%) said they did activate Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) – but the support offered varied greatly from borough to borough.
Over half (55%) of local authorities who activated SWEP said they only offered emergency accommodation to people considered “most vulnerable” and subject to strict eligibility criteria. Just under a third (30%) of councils did not include a special emergency accommodation offer in their SWEP response at all, instead relying on outreach teams distributing bottled water, sunscreen and directing rough sleepers to “cool spaces”.
AI healthcare
Surrey NHS trusts are investing tens of thousands of pounds into artificial intelligence tools across clinical and administrative settings, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal.
Freedom of Information responses to the LDRS have shown that AI-backed diagnostic tools, transcription softwares and phone systems are in use at hospitals across the county.
Among the tools used at Royal Surrey County Hospital is Annalise AI, a diagnostic software designed to help with analysis of chest X-rays. The trust is spending £21,120 per year on this technology, which has passed a “robust” evaluation process.
Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust – the county’s main mental health provider – spends an estimated £65,000 per year on Limbic AI Chat Bot, which is designed to assist with the patient referral process.
Emergency drill
Neither of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s two emergency departments has undergone a live evacuation practice exercise for 26 years, according to the Trust’s own data.
The information was published as part of a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request, which the Trust responded to on July 21, confirming: “There has not been a live evacuation exercise in either of our emergency departments since 2000.”
According to the NHS Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response Framework (2022), emergency live practice exercises should be held with a minimum frequency of every three years. However, these exercises can be held across hospital sites and do not need to specifically include emergency departments.
Empty homes
Herefordshire has a chronic under-supply of social and affordable housing – yet large county landlords have some 138 empty residential properties which have been unoccupied for over a year.
The figures have come to light in a Freedom of Information response from Herefordshire Council, which was asked to name the “corporate entities” with at least five properties liable for the double council tax premium on long-term vacant homes.
More than four in five of these properties are managed by social landlords, the figures reveal – led by Connexus, formed out of Herefordshire Housing Ltd, which took on the council’s housing stock in 2001, and manages 89 of the empty properties, nearly two-thirds of the total.
Attacks on staff
Almost 1,000 NHS workers were subjected to physical and verbal racist attacks last year as the number of hate incidents soared across Scotland, according to new figures.
Data obtained through Freedom Of Information legislation reveal there were at least 939 racially motivated incidents recorded by Scottish health boards in 2025 – a 44% increase on the previous year and almost three times the number recorded in 2021.
And reported assaults at Craigavon Area Hospital – where physical contact was made – hit a new high in the financial year just ended.
A total of 1,143 incidents were recorded, with a further 494 reports of individuals being threatened, although not physically assaulted. There were 37 reports of assault of a sexual nature, which includes sexual harassment and indecent exposure. A further 154 reports of verbal abuse were made, with an additional 16 that were racial in nature.
The information has been made available in a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Southern Health Trust by Armagh I.
Bus bad behaviour
More than 1,000 cases of antisocial behaviour on Lothian buses have been recorded since the start of the year.
There have also been 443 maintenance requests as a result of antisocial behaviour – 412 due to broken or vandalised seats and 31 due to broken windows. And there were six staff absences as a result of antisocial behaviour.
The information was obtained by Edinburgh and Lothian East Conservative MSP Miles Briggs through Freedom of Information. It showed a total of 1,111 antisocial behaviour incidents up to June 12.
Redundancies
A freedom of information (FOI) request seen by the BBC has revealed that £34m was paid out in “exit packages” after three NHS integrated care boards (ICBs) merged.
The FOI request made by Liberal Democrats on Central Bedfordshire Council revealed that the money was paid out during 2025/26 before a new Central East ICB came into being on 1 April.
Shots fired
More than 600 birds have been shot at York railway station, according to new data obtained through a freedom of information request.
According to new data – which was sourced directly from York-based train provider LNER (London North East Railway) under the Freedom of Information Act, 806 birds were culled in their stations since the beginning to last year.
Of the 11 stations managed by LNER, three – York, Newcastle, and Darlington – saw pest control experts visit in an effort to reduce the bird population – something that the train provider says is a last resort option.
Vehicle chargers
Figures released by Vauxhall show that the number of UK councils providing accessible on-street EV charging has doubled over the past 12 months. But despite that progress, three quarters of local authorities still don’t have any chargers that are specifically adapted for disabled drivers or meet recognised accessibility standards.
The figures come from Freedom of Information requests sent to councils across the UK. Of the 194 authorities that responded, 49 said they now have on-street charge points that have either been designed for disabled users or meet the British Standards Institution’s PAS 1899:2022 accessibility standard. That’s up from just 24 councils a year ago.
Crypto tax
Some 502 crypto investors have reached settlements with HMRC over unpaid taxes over the past two years, a Freedom of Information request from Identomat has revealed.
The request detailed that total settlements over 2024-25 and 2025-26 stood at £8,328,132.
This was made up of £3,543,387 worth of payments made by 280 individuals in 2024-25 and £4,784,745 across 222 cases in 2025-26.
Delays repaid
Rail passengers across the Midlands were reimbursed more than £1 million by just two train operators over a period of three-and-a-half months, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request.
West Midlands Railway (WMR) and London Northwestern Railway (LNWR) — both trading under parent company West Midlands Trains — paid out a combined total of £1,048,338.40 between February 1 and 2am on May 17 this year.
The payouts were made under the Delay Repay scheme, which entitles passengers to compensation when their train arrives 15 minutes or more behind schedule.
Of the overall sum, £384,683.69 was paid via bank transfer, £3,699.55 was donated to charity, £547,165.59 was returned to credit or debit cards, £97,845.56 was sent via PayPal, and £14,944.02 was issued as rail travel vouchers.
No loos
London bus drivers say they are being forced to hunt for toilets during their shifts, with some claiming the lack of facilities is affecting their health and wellbeing.
An ITV News London Freedom of Information investigation has found that toilet provision across the capital’s bus network is worse than many passengers might expect, with some routes lacking facilities at either end of the journey and others relying on a single toilet despite lengthy round-trip times.
Bin hubs
More than £2.5 million has been spent on the supply and delivery of Glasgow’s bin hubs since the programme launched, new figures have revealed.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by councillor Paul Carey BEM and shared exclusively with the LDR service shows that 628 hubs have been installed across the city to date, including the pilot areas.
In the last three years, the council has received 3711 reports of overflowing bin hubs, 1670 reports of fly-tipping and side waste, 641 complaints of graffiti and 300 “other issues”.
Collapse-prone wall
The costs of repairing a problem-plagued road in Nottinghamshire have been laid bare – but there are hopes the latest improvements should last years.
A section of Town Street, in Bramcote, which is known locally as ‘Devil’s Bend’ due to its narrow chicane, has suffered numerous lengthy closures over the last few years. The closures were caused by the collapse of the sandstone walls that border the narrow highway.
A response to a Freedom of Information request, submitted to Nottinghamshire County Council by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), now reveals the authority spent more than £250,000 on repairs between 2020 and 2026.
Cheap water
The Observer has, through freedom of information, obtained the annual charges some of the world’s biggest foreign bottled water companies are paying to the environmental regulator to extract billions of litres of pure water from ancient aquifers and springs in England.
The investigation reveals:
- Coca-Cola and Nestlé paid the EA combined fees of less than £10,000 in 2025-26 to abstract British spring water from aquifers for their bestselling brands Glacéau Smartwater and Nestlé Pure Life;
- American beverage company Niagara Bottling pays less than £1,300 a year to extract up to nearly 35m litres of water from a historic spring in West Yorkshire, via its subsidiary Shepley Spring;
- French-owned company Roxane UK has a licence to extract up to 1.5bn litres of spring and mineral water a year in Cumbria’s Eden Valley. It pays the EA fees of about £24,000 a year.
While bottled water companies abstract water for a typical cost of between 2p and 5p a cubic metre, householders with water meters can pay about £2.70 a cubic metre for tap water.
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