Contempt of court warning given to city council

Liverpool City Council has been told it needs to improve how quickly it provides information to the public, or face potential court action

A council has been told it could be held in contempt of court over failures to provide information to the public quickly enough.

By law, public bodies have to respond to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within 20 working days, but Liverpool City Council was found to be missing the deadline almost half of the time.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has now issued the council with an enforcement notice demanding it sets out how it is going to improve, and warning it could be held in contempt of court if it does not.

The authority said it recognised it needed to improve and had a plan in place.

'Deserve scrutiny'

The ICO said that between 1 January and 31 July, the council was responding within 20 days to 56% of requests.

As of August, it had a backlog of 75 overdue requests.

The ICO's enforcement notice said the council had to make sure all outstanding requests were answered by 8 January 2026.

Liberal Democrat opposition leader Carl Cashman said he had heard of people waiting up to 18 months for a response.

He said: "Residents deserve answers, journalists deserve access, and opposition councillors deserve scrutiny."

The council had been warned in 2023 to improve its responses to FOIs.

The enforcement notice issued this week said that if the council did not comply, it could face legal action, and ultimately could be found to be in contempt of court.

A Liverpool City Council spokesperson said: "We support the rights of people to have appropriate access to information held by the council and recognise the need to improve the consistency of response times to requests under the FOI Act.

"We are implementing a comprehensive plan to improve performance and will respond positively to all the requirements set out by the Information Commissioner."