Devon County Council

Devon County Council (“the Council”) has a poor level of performance in terms of its response times to FOIA requests. This has been highlighted following an introductory meeting between the Commissioner’s representative and the Council, when it was discovered that a backlog of overdue requests had accumulated and the number of requests not being responded to within the statutory timeframe had been consistently increasing month on month throughout 2023. Following engagement by his staff with the Council about the underlying reasons for these failings, the Information Commissioner has reached the view that the Council’s request handling practices do not conform to part 4 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code).