The Metropolitan Police still can’t respond to FOI requests within 20 working days. 

This is despite more than two years of ‘monitoring’ from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The regulator has today said the police force will continue to have their performance watched for another three months.

The force has been monitored since April 1 2013 and has failed to make enough of an improvement to be taken off naughty list.

“The performance of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in responding to information requests remains a concern,” a post on the ICO’s website said. 

“The MPS has recently centralised its FOI handling function and believes this will result in improvements in performance, the ICO is continuing to monitor and work with them to ensure these improvements are achieved.”

It also announced that the Ministry of Justice – responsible for FOI policy until it was ripped away by the Cabinet Office – would be monitored for the next three months.

Earlier this year the ICO said that enforcement action against the Met is “not off the agenda”Maybe it’s time the coppers had their collars felt? 


Image courtesy of David via Flickr / Creative Commons Licence

 

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.