Southend-on-Sea City Council

Southend-on-Sea City Council (the Council) has had a consistently poor level of performance in terms of its response times to FOIA requests. This has been highlighted by a significant increase in the frequency of decision notices that have been issued against the Council recording a breach of section 10 of FOIA. Following engagement by his staff with the Council about the underlying reasons for these failings, the 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).