Department for Education

Since 2019 and the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic, the Department for Education (DfE) has had a declining level of performance overall in terms of the timeliness of its responses to requests for information. The statistics published on the FOIA performance of central government bodies show that DfE has responded to less than 80% of requests within the statutory timeframe in 2020, 21 and 22. As recently as November 2023, DfE advised the Commissioner that it was responding to just 75% of requests within the required time limit.

DfE is taking action, however, and has reported that senior level interest in FOIA has had a positive impact on its performance recently. Amongst other FOIA support it now offers its staff, DfE has developed and is rolling out relevant training. The age profile of requests where responses are overdue isn’t high overall, although one response was reported as being more than 12 months overdue at January 2024. The Commissioner’s staff have engaged with DfE about the underlying reasons for its failure to lift its overall response rate to an acceptable and sustained level of compliance. Improvements have been made as outlined above and early data from 2024 has seen performance creep up to 81%. Given the timeliness issues DfE has experienced over what is now a prolonged period, however, it’s clear that DfE’s request handling practices does not consistently conform to Part 4 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code).