The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have published their new access to information strategy. Something strikes me about their “Goal #2”:
Goal #2: Providing excellent customer service to individuals making requests to us and lead by example in fulfilling our own statutory functions
The thing strikes me is that, bizarrely, they seem to have misunderstood the goal they’ve set themselves (I nearly referred to it as their “own goal”, which has a bit of a ring about it). They say
We have a varied range of individuals who request an independent review from us and a diverse range of public authorities within our jurisdiction from large central government departments to very small parish councils.
What they don’t say is “we are a public authority, subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and have to comply with its timescales, and promote observance of it by example”.
And, unfortunately, there is much evidence recently of a failure to do this.
The views in this post (and indeed all posts on this blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
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