By Arthur Clinton, News Reporter
The lawyer behind the appeal acted without consulting politicians on the council, a Liberal Democrat councillor claims.
In 2023, the Information Commissioner (ICO) said that Bristol City Council has ‘consistently’ been one of the councils with the most Freedom of Information (FoI) complaints in recent years.
The public body has received over 60 complaints since April 2023 about the council - many of these pertaining to unanswered Freedom of Information requests.
By law, public authorities must respond to requests within 20 working days.
Subsequently, the ICO issued Bristol City Council with an enforcement notice in March 2024 which required the council to resolve all outstanding requests and to publish an action plan to mitigate delays.
The council had previously said it would take 39 months to clear its backlog of 158 FoI requests, a pledge described by the ICO in the notice as ‘unreasonable’.
Last month, the council's Director of Legal and Democratic Services Tim O'Gara lodged the appeal, describing the notice as ‘disproportionate and excessively punitive’.
The appeal argued that an initial non-binding recommendation made to the council in 2023 did not explicitly mention the backlog, whereas the 2024 enforcement notice did, making the latter unjustified.
However, Judge Gilda Kiai disagreed. A ‘vast number of messages’ were sent between the ICO and the council regarding the backlog prior to the enforcement notice, Kiai said, rendering the appeal redundant.
The judge stated, ‘Significant delays can cause real difficulties to applicants, who often need information within a particular period of time for important reasons. It cannot be correct or fair for requests to not be dealt with for three years without any sanctions.’
Lib Dem Cller Nicholas Coombes, Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee, has previously critiqued the decision to appeal the notice from the Information Commissioner. He said to Epigram:
‘The Head of Legal did indeed act without informing politicians; a fact which emerged under my questioning at the Audit Committee.’
‘The appeal appears to have been launched on a technicality, and was dismissed. Personally, I would have far preferred our efforts to be focused on improving the service rather than legal tricks.’
‘Speaking for the Liberal Democrats, we are determined to clear the backlog of FoI requests and make the Council work in a transparent way.’
Epigram asked Bristol City Council about the possibility of a rift between the legal department and politicians. They said:
‘An appeal of the enforcement notice was instigated based on legal advice and done so in line with the council’s constitution.
‘The Tribunal dismissed the appeal and have published their decision online.
‘We have and continue to work with the Information Commissioner’s Office to improve performance and will carry on with these efforts to deliver best practice in our processes.’
The council is not the first Bristol institution to come under fire for poor handling of FoI inquiries; in 2018 it was revealed that the University of Bristol consistently failed to meet request deadlines.
Of the 474 requests received by the university in 2017, only 32.3 per cent were completed within the statutory 20 day deadline. One request revealed that more than 500 students were penalised for AI misuse in the 2023/24 academic year.
Annie McNamee
Harry Mayes
The university's Freedom of Information team attributed this to ‘staffing issues throughout the year, as well as technical issues resulting from an IT migration.’
However, the University of Bristol's rate of prompt fulfilments has rapidly improved; only 5 per cent of requests in 2023 failed to meet the legal deadline, a substantial improvement from previous years.
Featured Image: Epigram/ Katy Goodall
