Neil Wilby Media

Troubled Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, widely regarded as one of the most opaque in the country and an unenviable reputation for deceit and cover-up, is facing a criminal complaint under section 77 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2000 (“FOIA” or “the Act”).

The script of this particular drama, which opened in October, 2023, has unfolded on the iconic What Do They Know platform, in a thread headlined curiously enough ‘Compliance with Freedom of Information Act’, can be read in full at this weblink.

It has already yielded the startling admission by this local authority that they break information rights law, on average, at least once every single day (read more here). Although, at the conclusion of this journalistic investigation, the final calculation is confidently expected to be much higher.

It is that outcome, highlighting further and more serious wrongdoing, that Oldham Council plainly fear. To the extent that, during the course of this latest saga and setting aside their familiar laziness and ineptitude, they have, yet again, been prepared to both break the law and drive a coach and horses through the Cabinet Office Code of Practice.

At the heart of the dispute that has led to the criminal complaint is access sought by Neil Wilby, the author of this article, to a dataset that should already be in the public domain, namely the log that the Council keeps of all its freedom of information requests and their finalisations (or outcomes in less formal terms).

Unsurprisingly, known as a FOIA Disclosure Log elsewhere amongst public authorities who fall under the remit of the Act, Oldham is believed to be the only unitary authority in England and Wales that does not publish such a log. When questioned on the topic, they cannot give a cogent answer, beyond ‘we might have one at an unspecified date in the future’.

All the evidence gathered by Neil Wilby Media strongly suggests that the reason the log is being deliberately withheld by the Council is that, when eventually disclosed, in whole or in part, it will reveal further wrongdoing, or untruths already told about the data within it or the actions they have taken around it.

A criminal complaint was made yesterday (5th March, 2024) to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the statutory regulator charged with dealing with such issues. The full text of the complaint can be read by scrolling down to the bottom of the What Do They Know thread.

The progress of the complaint to the ICO, regrettably not noted for either speedy responses or efficiency in dealing with its own investigations, will be charted on this website.

Meantime, evidence gathering continues with what appears to be another seriously concerning discovery, made only hours after the complaint was submitted to the ICO: Data disclosed to a local newspaper by Oldham Council varies significantly from that disclosed privately to a member of the public but shared with Neil Wilby Media. The latter spawned a recent article that can be read here, the former was the basis for an article published by The Oldham Times in July, 2022 which can be read here. Readers can form their own conclusions until the outcome of a deeper analysis is published in a new article over the course of the coming week.

Oldham Council’s Head of Information Governance, Victoria Gallagher, has been offered right of reply. The email carrying the invitation was not acknowledged.

The scale and impact of information rights law-breaking has been repeatedly brought to the attention of Council Leader, Cllr Arooj Shah. Utterly obsessed by matters happening 2,361 miles away from the Civic Centre, she has elected to do absolutely nothing except, apparently, orchestrate a campaign to vex, annoy and harass the journalist bearing the bad news.

Page last updated: Thursday 7th March 2024 at 0025 hours

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