Top officer says council should be more transparent

Dudley’s top officer says the council should be more transparent after targets for answering freedom of information requests were missed.

September’s meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee was told, during the first quarter of the current financial year, the authority had answered 81.17 percent of Freedom of Information and Environmental Regulation requests within statutory timescales.

The council’s target for answering these requests within time limits is 90 percent; a report for councillors explained the shortfall was due to ‘staffing challenges’ and a recruitment process was under way.

Cllr Qasim Mughal said: “When public opinion is at a record low in terms of trust in governance it is a little concerning that one in five FOI requests are not met within statutory guidance.

“What are we doing to ensure public trust is not completely eroded?”

The council’s chief executive, Balvinder Heran, added: “Is that performance where we want to be? No, but sheer volume is difficult to keep up with and we are not alone as a council in facing that.”

Ms Heran pointed out many FOI requests are related to sales enquiries where companies are seeking information to use in bidding for business from the council.

Committee members were also told some requests are for information that is already publicly available, such as council spending.

Ms Heran added: “We should be more transparent as a council. What we don’t do is signpost them to our website so, if we got better at that, we could reduce the amount of capacity it takes to answer FOIs.

“We will be strengthening this area as part of our new operating model.”

Cllr Mughal said: “The target is quite low, we should aim to meet all of our statutory obligations, not just 90 percent of them.”

Cllr Pete Lowe told the committee people may be making FOI requests because they had been unable to get answers from other council departments.

He added: “If there hadn’t been a reasonable response it may be driving people down to a more formal request.”

Ms Heran explained requests can range from straightforward to ‘something that is incredibly complex’.