Whitby Town Council: Extra staff for Freedom of Information requests

Whitby's Town Council has not put a figure on the amount of FOI requests it receives

Councillors have urged their authority to hire extra staff to deal with a rise in Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Whitby Town Council has not said how many requests it deals with, but said it currently only had one and a half members of staff to deal with them.

It can take between four and 18 hours to deal with each under the FOI Act.

The motion to hire an employee for 10 hours a week will now be considered by the council's HR committee.

The FOI Act allows members of the public to request access to information held by public authorities.

Under the act public authorities should respond to such requests within 20 working days, though they can be turned down if it would cost too much or take up too much staff time.

Linda Wild, who chairs the council's finance, policy and general purpose committee, proposed the motion.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The [HR] committee will work together with the staff to find ways to handle external and internal requests efficiently.

"Members were eager to cut out low-value tasks and manage frivolous requests so that the staff can focus on Whitby's core activities and serving the people."

She said hiring an additional staff member would cost the council "in the region of £7,300 at minimum wage, including statutory overheads".