Figures reveal speedier FOI requests

(CNS): The latest statistics from the Information Commissioner’s office have revealed a 42% drop in the number of freedom of information requests being made by members of the public. But the numbers published to mark this year’s Right to Know week have also revealed that government is getting much quicker at responding to the requests. There was a marked decrease in the average response time from 31 to just 20 days, reflecting the best recorded response times since FOI was introduced more than seven years ago.

This year only 34% of requests were responded to outside the initial 30-day time limit, compared to 51% in 2014-2015.

While a drop in the number of requests will have made things easier for information managers, the speedier response times were in part due to internal vigilance and increased training of information managers, according to Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers.

“Late last year the deputy governor sent around an administrative circular to information managers urging them to do better and to staff asking them to cooperate fully when the officers put in information requests,” Liebaers said. “We also think that these figures reflect the efficacy of increased training. This led to information managers having the confidence to give out information which mitigated the need for some potential FOI requests.”

Deputy Governor Franz Manderson promised there would be no complacency, and encouraged by the “best statistics we’ve had so far”, he said the improved turnaround and response times would continue. “We will aim for even better results in the future,” he added.

But the fall in the numbers of request delivers a mixed message for FOI as the information commissioner stated that it could have both positive and negative reasons and connotations.

“Potentially, relevant factors may include a greater emphasis on answering requests outside the FOI law by IMs, increased proactive publication of information on government websites, a stricter use of the central tracking system, and the uncertainties surrounding the creation of the Ombudsman’s Office,” he said.

While requests are being handled more quickly, 29% of requests are still being denied and less than half (45%) of all requests were granted in full, which is 6% higher than last year’s all-time low of 39% of requests being fully granted. Just under a quarter were granted in part over the last year.

Immigration remains the agency that receives the most requests, having dealt with 100 more over the last year than the Health Services Authority, which received the second most amount of requests.

Observed in more than 90 jurisdictions annually, the theme for the 2016 Right to Know Week was “It’s Yours Just Ask”. Here in Cayman the ICO team spent last week promoting the concept of FOI and raised awareness about the rights of the public to access information that is held by government.

See the latest FOI statistics on the CNS Library