Greater Manchester Police ordered to clear FOI backlog

GMP has been told to clear the backlog by July or it could be held in contempt of court

Greater Manchester Police has been ordered to take urgent action to clear a huge backlog of overdue Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued the force with an enforcement notice for "repeated failures" in responding to requests.

It said it had 850 requests awaiting a response, some dating back to 2021.

GMP has 35 days to publish an action plan and clear the backlog by July or it could be held in contempt of court.

The force said it had a "robust" action plan in place to improve its response time.

The ICO is the UK's independent regulator for data protection and information rights law.

The enforcement notice comes after the ICO issued a practice recommendation to GMP in February after it was found to be the most complained about police force for timeliness over the previous 12 months.

Phillip Angell, of the ICO, said: "Greater Manchester Police has currently done little to address the response backlog.

"Whilst we recognise 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."

'Transparency is key'

He added: "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."

Ian Cosh, senior information risk owner at GMP, said the force will take the enforcement notice "incredibly seriously" and the action plan was already in motion to speed things up.

He said GMP was "committed to transparency", and the plan includes new practices and processes as well as recruiting new staff.

"As a result, our compliance rate has improved significantly, exceeding 80% consistently over the last four months and the national average for police forces which currently stands at 76%," he said.

"I want to provide the public reassurance that I'm confident our action plan will result in us managing outstanding requests in a timely manner."

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities, through publication schemes and the public making requests.

Under the legislation, public organisations are required to respond to requests within 20 working days or explain why it will take longer to do so.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]