"Go do some real work & stop wasting taxpayer £," says a Labour cllr about FOIs but the ICO disagrees
The Information Commissioners’ Office have issued Bristol City Council a practice recommendation for their failures in answering Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. They have also issued the threat of an enforcement notice and reporting on them to parliament.
Between April 22 and August 23, the Commissioner had received 61 complaints about the Council and a significant number of complaints had been received in the years immediately preceding this.
The Council’s own figures show that, in June 23, only 56% of requests where responded to within the time for compliance, 20 days. As of 20 July 23, its response was overdue to 147 FOI requests in total.
39 exceeded the statutory limit by up to 20 days,
96 exceeded the statutory limit by between 21 and 100 days, and
12 exceeded the statutory limit by over 100 days.
The practice recommendation cannot be directly enforced by the Commissioner but failure to comply may result in the issuing of an enforcement notice and a report to Parliament.
The Council has until the end of 2023 to confirm it has complied with its recommendations and how it has achieved this.
One example of a delayed FOI request maybe illustrative of why such delays keep happening. In July 22, I asked the council about the financial arrangements between them and the programme Stepping Up. Stepping Up was started up and sponsored by Asher Craig, councillor and cabinet member, for which her company Stepping Up CIC has by now received two contracts from the council.
I have written previously about how she called me a racist and was abusive on Twitter for putting in the FOI.
She said:
"Why are you chatting (poo emoji) who gets paid £22k a month and also your (sic) just pissed because your frivolous & vexations FOI came up empty as have all your fishing expeditions. Go do some real work & stop wasting taxpayer £."
Asking for information about the council was contrasted to ‘real work’ and equated with ‘wasting taxpayer £’. Note: the complaint I put in about her communication was upheld although she never apologised as she was told to.
Back to the FOI timeline; by the end of August, the council had not replied.
In September, I asked for an internal review.
I then went to the ICO.
The council finally replied on 2nd December and sent me the information I had requested five months previously.
The emails I received contained, among other things, an admonition from the head of finance, Denise Murray, to all parties involved that there had been “a breakdown in communication and arrangements for Stepping Up 22/23 have not been appropriately ratified.”
If the programme was to continue running, in the absence of a signed agreement clearly outlining the financial arrangements in place, Stepping UP CIC of which Craig was a director with significant control at the time, needed to do the very basics:
“Set up bank account, VAT registration, install an accounting / invoicing system, Prepare the 22/23 Income and Expenditure account, raise invoices to all participants (should have happened at the commencement of the programme),” and various other accounting necessities; they also had reimburse Bristol Waste £52.5k in relation to payments made to date.
In all, what was revealed was a financial mess, which the public kept financing, although it didn’t stop the council paying out two contracts to Craig’s company.
It may be understandable why the council might not want us to know what it was doing with our money and why the councillor who was benefitting was irate but it’s not really good enough.
I wonder what the other delayed FOIs are hiding.
No surprise Joanna same practice in Liverpool City Council