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Freedom of information queries hit by delays

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Published Date: 20 March 2007
NEARLY one fifth of freedom of information requests made to the city council are not responded to on time.
New figures show the council handled 1478 queries last year, but only 1200 were replied to within the required 20 working days.

Many of the requests for information related to either education or transport, with dozens of questions about parking fines and the future of city schools.

Lawyers used the system to find out information on certain roads or pavements, to help pursue compensation for damage to a vehicle, or injury from a trip or fall.

Other residents asked the council to supply all personal information the local authority had about them, while a number of requests came from journalists.

In the last three months of the year, there were also unusual requests - including from people tracing their family history.



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  • Last Updated: 20 March 2007 10:42 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Freedom of information
 
1

Road Raga,

20/03/2007 12:41:46

Most of the FOI requests come from the media - looking for some scandal. Thats not what the FOI was mean't to be about. And the EEN is one of the culprits. This costs the Council and the Scottish Exec a small fortune in staff time, often for trivial requests.

2

J,

Edinburgh 20/03/2007 13:54:39

Actually, Private Eye asked this question under FOIA recently. Figures were that the fourth estate actually made only 10% of UK-wide FOIA requests.

3

J,

Edinburgh 20/03/2007 13:55:04

Think this was covered on www.edinburghsucks.com some time ago.

4

Vaydan cowboy,

20/03/2007 14:14:11

Yes, and it was covered here about a week ago, yawn.

Still its good to see that a request for statistics on FOI was granted under the FOI act. Or something, im not sure.

5

brettgallacher,

20/03/2007 18:26:37

road rage do you work for the council cos it costs nowt to get information

6

brettgallacher,

20/03/2007 18:27:12

why simple cos us taxpeyers are already paying for their time


 

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