Council's FOI response time worsening, data reveals

The town hall has responded to just 53% of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the 20-day statutory limit so far this year, down from 67% last year and 86% in 2024/25, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter

Waltham Forest Council is getting worse at replying to data requests on time, according to new data.

The town hall has responded to just 53% of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the 20-day statutory limit so far this year, down from 67% last year and 86% in 2024/25.

Meanwhile, only a third of subject access requests (SAR) have so far been completed within the calendar-month deadline. This is down from 49% the previous year, and 46% between December 2024 and March 2025.

Waltham Forest has blamed a combination of rising demand and a shortage of staff.

FOIs allow people to request information from public bodies, such as government departments, councils or healthcare providers.

SARs enable individuals to ask companies or local authorities whether they hold personal data about them and, if so, to be given a copy of that data along with an explanation of how and why it is being used.

There are currently 320 outstanding FOIs and 217 SARs, the latter of which includes cases where the council is still waiting for residents to confirm their identities.

The issue was raised by Conservative councillor Jemma Hemsted at a full council meeting last week.

In a pre-written response, council leader Paul Perkins said: “Performance has been affected by rising demand and staffing capacity constraints, particularly within specialist FOI and SAR roles.”

“In response, we have strengthened management oversight, enhanced performance monitoring, improved case allocation, and will introduce a new performance dashboard by the end of October,” he said.

“We are also redesigning the online processes to reduce avoidable demand and streamline case handling.”

He added that a previously vacant SAR officer post was filled in September to “increase capacity and support backlog reduction”.

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