• silicon.com
• Management
• Public Sector

By Dan Ilett, 13 January 2006 14:25

NEWS

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has resolved less than half of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act complaints it received last year.

Since the FoI Act came into effect last January, the ICO said it has resolved 1,082 complaints out of 2,300 about public authorities not releasing information.

Those that have been resolved were done so by negotiation, informal resolution or with a formal decision notice, 135 of which were issued, the ICO said.

A spokesman for the ICO told silicon.com: "We've brought in a raft of new measures to improve productivity. In December we cleared nearly double the number of complaints than November. The outstanding cases – we are dealing them. We're not complacent."

Local and central government each accounted for a third of complaints - the largest number of classified complaints. The most common reason authorities claimed exemption was that disclosure would breach personal privacy. Prejudice to commercial interests was the second most common exemption claimed.

The department said that complainants often fail to provide all the information required, such as a copy of the original application or evidence that a request has been turned down.

Last week the ICO ruled that the minutes from closed-door meetings between senior government ministers and civil servants would have to be made public under the FoI Act.