If there is one complaint I hear most frequently about the Freedom of Information regime in England and Wales it is that of long delays in requests being answered - if at all. FOI requests are dutifully filed, acknowledgments are received and earnest requesters will expect results within a month or so.
But that’s not happening. Increasingly FOI requesters are being met with a brick wall of administrative silence as official bodies refuse to respond to requests - or, even, at times to acknowledge their existence.
I know all too well how long it can take to get a response to an FOI request. Last week, I won a landmark battle in the Irish Supreme Court - after a five-year appeals process. This case centered on the use of exemptions such as commercial sensitivity by public bodies, with the court ruling on exactly how the public interest test should function in relation to that exemption, among many other findings.
