Handling FOI requests (2022)
Request
- Could you provide me with a copy of your organisations Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Request policy and procedure?
- Do you publish your responses to FOI/EIR requests?
- How many FOI/EIR requests did you receive in each month last year? (either from January – December, or April – March is fine)
- What percentage of FOI/EIR requests do you reply to ‘in time’? (within the 20 day time limit)
- What team manages your FOI process? (for example: Legal, Media, Governance, etc.)
- How many FOI officers, or equivalent role, do you have? (staff members specifically working on FOI responses/process)
- What management system do you use to record FOI/EIR requests? (for example: Salesforce, Pentana, Civica etc.)
Response
1) Could you provide me with a copy of your organisations Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Request policy and procedure?
Some information is held by the House of Commons in relation to your request.
The House does not have a Freedom of Information/Environmental Information Request ‘policy’ – we simply comply with the law.
We do however hold guidance explaining our FOI/EIR procedures, and this information is published on our website. As the information is already publicly available, it is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 21(1) and (2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), which removes a public authority from the obligation to provide access to information which is already in the public domain. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
However, it may help you to know that information relevant to your request can be found on our FOI pages. In particular, the section “Staff Guidance” hosts a number of documents which extensively detail our FOI/EIR procedures.
2) Do you publish your responses to FOI/EIR requests?
This information is held by the House of Commons.
The House publishes responses to those FOI requests which provide information in the public interest and/or which contain datasets. These are published to the House of Commons FOI Disclosures pages on our website.
3) How many FOI/EIR requests did you receive in each month last year? (either from January – December, or April – March is fine)
This information is held by the House of Commons. The House holds the number of requests received by each month for the period January 2021 to December 2021, and this is as follows:
• January 2021 – 46
• February 2021 – 49
• March 2021 – 66
• April 2021 – 46
• May 2021 – 54
• June 2021 – 52
• July 2021 – 43
• August 2021 – 49
• September 2021 – 51
• October 2021 – 56
• November 2021 – 86
• December 2021 – 80
4) What percentage of FOI/EIR requests do you reply to ‘in time’? (within the 20 day time limit)
This information is held by the House of Commons. Currently (in the last month), we have responded to 99% of FOI and EIR requests within the 20-day statutory time limit.
5) What team manages your FOI process? (for example: Legal, Media, Governance, etc.)
This information is held by the House of Commons. The FOI process is managed by the Information Compliance Team, who sit within the House’s Research and Information team.
6) How many FOI officers, or equivalent role, do you have? (staff members specifically working on FOI responses/process)
This information is held by the House of Commons. The Information Rights Officer position is the House’s equivalent to an FOI Officer role, and there are currently two Information Rights Officers in the Information Compliance Team.
7) What management system do you use to record FOI/EIR requests? (for example: Salesforce, Pentana, Civica etc.)
This information is held by the House of Commons. The Information Compliance Team uses Microsoft Excel in order to record FOI/EIRs requests received by the House.