Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The FCDO has had a consistently poor level of performance in terms of the time limit for complying with information requests. This has been highlighted by the number of complaints the Commissioner has received about timeliness, data contained in the central government FOI performance statistics, and wider commentary from the information rights community about the FCDO’s performance. The Commissioner also has concerns about the time it takes the FCDO to complete internal reviews. Following engagement by his staff with the FCDO about the underlying reasons for these failings, the Commissioner has reached the view that the FCDO’s request handling practices do not conform to parts 1, 4 and 5 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code).