Ealing Council Commits to Publishing FoI Requests Online
Opposition says it has pressured borough into being more open
Cllr Malcolm raises the issue of FoI requests at a recent Ealing Council meeting
July 29, 2024
The Liberal Democrat opposition on Ealing Council is claiming credit for conformation that the borough will publish residents’ Freedom of Information (FoI) requests online by the end of the year.
The council had been criticised for making a commitment to be ‘Open, Transparent and Inclusive’ but not allowing the public to view question put to it under the FoI Act.
The Labour administration committed in principle to doing this over a year ago but for the first time it has set itself a deadline. It had previously said the disclosure log would be introduced along with an upgrade of the council’s web site.
FoI requests are a formal requests from residents who want to get an official statistic or other information about their Council or other public bodies which is not in the public doman. Many Councils including Harrow, Barnet, Bexley and Tower Hamlets, as well as the Greater London Assembly, published online a list of requests made.
Ealing Council has a target answering all requests within four weeks but 10% of people have to wait longer than this time.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Gary Malcolm, Leader of the Opposition, asked the following oral question to a Labour Councillor during a recent meeting, “Could the portfolio holder please outline why a year with no progress since this Labour administration commitment to publish and online Freedom of Information log on 13th June 2023 Council following the Liberal Democrat motion on this topic?”
The council said that they would introduce it by the end this year but would initially test the new process internally.
Cllr Malcolm said, “Liberal Democrats have demanded this action from Labour for over a year, but we are sad that it has taken over a year to agree to make public this information in a more user-friendly way. We believe that many changes to the Council’s website that effect users and residents often fail to live up to the hype, so we believe there should be feedback from some residents to check it will do what they say it will.”
Anyone can make an FoI request to Ealing Council, even non-residents. For guidance on how to submit a request visit this link.
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