Proposed changes to water down freedom of information (FOI) requests would do little to help cash-strapped local authorities and risk stripping campaign groups of a “crucial tool” to hold UK councils to account, say advocates.
Ministers are reportedly mulling a change in freedom of information (FOI) laws that could see the cost ceiling of requests lowered in order to save councils money.
The FOI Act was introduced in 2005 and allows anyone to ask a public body for documents, emails, and data. Currently force councils are mandated to spend up to 18 hours and £450 searching their archives for any given request.
“The problem with the idea of a [FOI] burden is it ignores the democratic benefits,” said Dr Ben Worthy, a researcher at the University of London who specialises in government transparency.
Dr Worthy said many public bodies currently ignore the cost ceiling, preferring to go above and beyond if the request is deemed reasonable.
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“The FOI Act is a crucial tool to help hold the government accountable.”
He added that the changes could reduce the volume of requests “slightly” but would likely be accompanied by requirements for those requesting information to prove their identity, a further burden on local authorities’ resources.
Donald Campbell is director of Foxglove, a tech-justice charity that uses FOI requests in its campaigning. He said: “The FOI Act is a crucial tool to help hold the government accountable.”
Foxglove has used online, en-masse FOI requests to probe the environmental impact of data centres and to reveal sewage pollution across Britain.
“If ministers water down these powers, they will limit the public’s ability to reveal wrongdoing in government,” Campbell added.
The new price cap is in the early stages of being discussed due to “heavily constrained Whitehall budgets”, according to a report from the Financial Times.
Public bodies can reject an FOI request if it is over the current £450 cap, would take an unreasonable amount of time, or if the information is too sensitive – breaching data protection law or national security legislation, for example.
The volume of FOI requests has nearly doubled since 2022, with the most recent figures in 2024 seeing 83,041 requests received – a 12,566 increase from 2023.
Featured image credit: Nick Youngson
