The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act

In June 2023, Croydon Council received an Enforcement Notice from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about our response times to requests made under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

The Enforcement Notice follows a Practice Recommendation issued by the ICO to the council in July 2022, relating to a backlog of older FOI requests.

We have since been speaking to the ICO about our performance and have made progress in responding to new requests within the statutory time limit of 20 working days. While the ICO has noted that there has been improvement in our compliance, the Commissioner believes that further improvement must be made.

Download the FOIA Enforcement Notice London Borough of Croydon 26 June 2023 (PDF, 161KB)

Download the FOIA improvement action plan - 31 July 2023

What we are doing to improve our FOI response times

• The FOIA Improvement Action Plan formalises the measures we are putting in place to mitigate delays.
• Undertaking a recommended lessons learned exercise.
• Providing full training to all staff who deal with FOIs to improve understanding of the Freedom of Information Act and Environment regulations.
• Providing weekly FOI updates within the council
• Working closely with the ICO, providing regular updates on our performance.