Friday 19 November 2010

Questioning FOI figures

I've been having some trouble getting a clear account of how exactly Liverpool City Council is performing on Freedom of Information questions (and Subject Access questions - which are the ones you can ask about data held about yourself)

I've been given in the past two sets of figures which contradict themselves.  I think its important that we know how the authority is performing on this (particularly given the effort I put into improving the response rates last year)

Anyway, in frustration on the lack of clarity I asked a question of Cllr Paul Brant, deputy leader of the council, at the finance committee on Wednesday.  To be fair to him he did agree to go away and get an answer.  The question is pasted below.

Question to the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources


In a reply to a Council question to me in July, the cabinet member gave the most recent performance figures for FOI and SAR requests being met as



FOI 96%

SAR 100%



A report to the most recent O and S Committee however also reported on the figures but reported these as



FOI 83 %

SAR 45%



These figures are clearly very different.



I have been promised an explanation of how this happened by officers. This explanation has however yet to materialise.



Can the Cabinet Member, whose name appears on the Council answer, please tell me the reason for the discrepancy or give me a timeframe in which an answer will be provided?

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