Answers to Sheffield Council Freedom of Information requests plummet due to pandemic

Legally the council must respond within 20 working days but this past year it only answered 64 per cent of the 1,543 requests in time.

This response rate was down from 93 per cent in 2019/20 and fails to meet the target of response rate of 95 per cent.

Assistant director Mike Weston says in a report: “In the first quarter of the year we received almost half the number of requests typically received.

“By the fourth quarter of the year, the number of requests rose to the same levels as before the pandemic.

“However, as demand stabilised, it has taken longer than normal to process requests because of the strain on resources across the council caused by the pandemic.

“Work has taken place to address the backlog and to improve compliance rates.”

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People can appeal about the way their request has been handled, known as an internal review, and the council received 54 requests in 2020/21.

In 27 cases, either the council changed its position and released information or upheld the original decision, which was accepted by the requester. There are 27 internal reviews outstanding.

In addition, the Information Commissioner’s Officer has corresponded with the council on nine separate occasions.

The council resolved two informally with the customer; the ICO upheld two cases in favour of the council and five cases still remain open awaiting action by the ICO or formal closure.