Enable the public’s access to information
We have an important role to play in providing certainty to the public sector on what they should and could make public, through learning from our regulatory interventions and decisions. We are also in a unique position to work with organisations and requesters, enabling outcomes that help public authorities to get the right information to requesters at the right time.
Publish our decisions – we will publish statistics and information on all the FOI cases we make decisions and take action on, to help clarify our regulatory approach.
Dispute resolution – we will provide a service to help public authorities to better understand what requesters are trying to achieve and resolve their request.
FOI ease of access – we will support members of the public to make an FOI request by promoting the use of tools to help them do so. This will help clarity so public authorities find requests easier to handle. It will make it easier for those who are not familiar with the law to access information.
Focus our FOI resources effectively
The ICO has limited FOI funding and cannot cross-fund its activities from other income. At the same time, there has been a sustained increase in the number of cases brought to us, as well as an increased need to work proactively with public authorities to support and guide them.
Agile approach to FOI appeals – we will move quickly, recognising that is important to provide a timely outcome, respecting that the Tribunal may not always agree with our decision.
Prioritising FOI complaints – we will not deal with every FOI complaint or appeal in the same way. We will make objective decisions to prioritise our work based on open and transparent criteria and public interest.
Better FOI – we will run a programme of activity to ensure our work on FOI is as efficient and effective as possible, with more upstream regulation and systemic enforcement to improve frontline services.