Neil Wilby Media

Earlier today, 20th December, 2023, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued an enforcement notice against Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for repeated failures to lawfully respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

GMP currently has a backlog of 850 overdue requests. Of these, more than 800 are over six months old and 580 are over a year old. The oldest open request was submitted almost two and a half years prior to the issuing of this enforcement notice. 

Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2000 requires a public authority or police force to respond to a request promptly or, in any event, within 20 working days.

The enforcement notice, which can be read in full here, follows the practice recommendation issued in February 2023 after the ICO’s routine monitoring showed that GMP was the most complained-about police force for timeliness over the previous 12 months.

GMP wanted to clear the backlog by the end of 2024, but this was deemed unacceptable.

Phillip Angell, Head of FOI Casework at the Information Commissioner’s Office, says:

“In issuing this enforcement notice today, we are demanding urgent action from Greater Manchester Police in responding to freedom of information requests.

“Greater Manchester Police has currently done little to address the response backlog. Whilst we recognise that an action plan has been put in place and some progress has been made to improve its timeliness since the issuing of the Practice Recommendation, we are not seeing the improvement both we and the public need to see at the pace we need to see it. Improved response times to incoming requests should not be made at the expense of clearing the existing backlog – they should go hand in hand.

“There is nothing more important than the police maintaining the trust and understanding of the public, but this is not the way to earn that trust. Transparency is key, and compliance with freedom of information requests is a vital part of that.”

GMP must now devise and publish an action plan within 35 days detailing how it will respond to information requests in a timely fashion, while also clearing its backlog of late requests by 31st July 2024. The force could be held in contempt of court if it fails to comply with these actions.

The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection and information rights law, upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

The  ICO has specific responsibilities set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA2018), the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) and a further five acts and regulations.

The ICO can take action to address and change the behaviour of organisations and individuals that collect, use and keep personal information. This includes criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement and audit.

GMP has been asked, via their press office, for a response to the ICO enforcement notice.

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Page last updated: Wednesday 20th December, 2023 at 0705 hours

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