Regulator holds public bodies to account by cracking down on FOI failures

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a series of enforcement notices and practice recommendations to several public authorities after identifying significant failures to comply with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000.

As part of our ongoing regulatory work, our FOI team has been closely monitoring compliance across the UK. This work has led to targeted interventions where organisations have not met their statutory duties. The ICO remains firmly committed to driving greater transparency and ensuring public authorities are held accountable for upholding the public’s right to information. 

Recent actions include:

• Enforcement Notice to London Borough of Enfield Council – for failing their statutory duties under the FOIA. In September 2025, the Council had 271 open requests over a month old, with more possibly unlogged. The enforcement notice requires all requests to be logged within three months, and all overdue FOIs answered within six.  
• Enforcement Notice to Cambridge Hospitals NHS Trust - for failing to meet the statutory deadlines when responding to information requests. In August 2025, the ICO contacted the Trust asking for FOI performance statistics, which revealed compliance rates of just 14-50% between quarters four of 2024/25 - quarter two of 2025/26. Additionally, 67 cases of 222 open requests were over one year old. The Trust admitted to poor staffing levels and inadequate FOIA awareness which resulted in delays and has been ordered to clear the backlog.
• Practice Recommendation to Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Trust – for inadequate FOI response rates. Between October 2024 and August 2025, the Trust achieved an average compliance rate of just 34% for providing responses within 20 working days. Despite improvements being made since, and the Trust now operating at a 60% compliance rate (as of October 2025), some further improvements are yet to be made.
• Eight Practice Recommendations to Northern Ireland government departments - for failing to publish FOI compliance statistics as required for authorities of their size.
• Practice Recommendation to London Borough of Redbridge Council – for having a consistently poor FOI response performance levels and significant numbers of overdue requests. The ICO has requested that the council create an action plan by the end of December highlighting processes to ensure at least 90% timeliness is achieved as well as clearing the backlog of overdue requests by March 2026.  

Phillip Angell, Head of FOI and Transparency, said:

“We remain committed to holding organisations publicly accountable when it comes to FOI compliance. If public authorities fail to deliver a transparent service, it questions their integrity and their ability to meet their legal obligations. 

“Those making FOI requests should do so, knowing that they will receive a response in a timely manner with adequate advice on any next steps that can be taken. And those failing to meet their basic duties, should and will be held accountable.  

“The recent action taken against these public authorities demonstrates our firm approach to FOI and accountability, particularly in tackling systemic transparency issues.

“In the new year, we will review the impact of this approach to assess whether it has driven improved compliance. But our commitment remains clear: to uphold the public’s right to access information across the UK.”