1. WhatDoTheyKnow Transparency report: 2022

    WhatDoTheyKnow is a project of mySociety, run by a small team of staff and dedicated volunteers.

    In 2022 WhatDoTheyKnow users made 109,653 Freedom of Information requests via WhatDoTheyKnow.

    Those requests, and the responses they received, are public on the website for anyone to see.  

    What’s not quite so visible is the work that the WhatDoTheyKnow team, which is largely made up of volunteers, do behind the scenes.  

    Some of their most difficult calls arise around the removal of information. WhatDoTheyKnow’s guiding principle is that it is a permanent, public, archive of Freedom of Information requests and responses, open to all.

    The team works incredibly hard to maintain the archive in the face of challenges, including the reduction of legal risks; dealing fairly and transparently when people ask for information to be removed from the site; answering users’ questions; supporting citizens to use their rights to FOI; dealing with misuse of the service which breaches our house rules inappropriate content and keeping everything ticking over.

    Our default position is not to remove substantive public information requests and responses; however, we act quickly if problematic content is reported to us. And, to help everyone understand exactly what has been removed and why, where possible we record these details on the request page.

    To allow for a full 12 months of data, the date range used throughout this report is 1 November 2021 to 31 October 2022.

    Headline facts and figures

    • 16,354,872 visits to WhatDoTheyKnow.com this year.
    • 16,217 new WhatDoTheyKnow user accounts created this year, taking the total number of accounts to 239,540. This represents an increase of 7.6% in the total number of site users since last year.
    • 8,912 total number of email threads in the support inbox in 2022… that’s an increase of 11.2%, making it all the more crucial that we continue to recruit volunteers to help spread the load.
    • 1,381 requests hidden from WhatDoTheyKnow in 2022
      …in the context of 109,653 requests made in the year, and a total of 867,303 requests currently published on the site.
    • 171 published requests where we redacted some material in 2022
      …usually due to the inappropriate inclusion of personal information, or defamation.

    And in more detail

    Requests made on WhatDoTheyKnow flagged for our attention

    The table below shows the reasons that requests were reported by our users via the site for admin attention this year. 

    Note that we also receive many reports directly by email, so while not comprehensive, this is indicative.

    Reason for attention report Total number
    Vexatious 117
    Not a valid request 109
    Contains personal information 89
    Request for personal information 85
    Contains defamatory material 33
    Other 642
    Total* 1,075

    *The number of requests flagged for attention this year is up 40% on last year. This is largely related to a single campaign of misuse.

    Material removed from the site

    The following tables show where members of the admin team have acted to remove or hide requests from WhatDoTheyKnow in the last year, and the reason why.

    At WhatDoTheyKnow  we have a policy of removing as little material as possible, while seeking to run the site responsibly and take different viewpoints into account. Removing substantive FOI requests and responses is a last resort and something we do very rarely. However, we act quickly to remove problematic material.

    Request visibility Total number
    Discoverable only to those who have the link to the request 2
    Visible only to the request maker 1,282
    Hidden from all site visitors 97

     

    Reason for removing from public view Total number**
    Not a valid FOI request 1,117
    Vexatious use of FOI 43
    Other (reason not programmatically recorded*) 221

    * Current processes do not create an easily retrievable list of reasons beyond the two above, however due to site improvements made in autumn of this year we expect to be able to provide more detailed information on this in the future.

    ** The number of requests hidden or removed from the site this year is up by 68% on last year. As above, this increase is largely related to a single campaign of misuse. 

    Censor rules (targeted redactions to hide the problematic part/s of a request) Total number
    Number of censor rules applied 746
    Number of requests with censor rules applied 171
    Number of requests with censor rules applied which are still publicly visible, but with problematic material hidden 165

    * Censor rules are used for many purposes, including redacting problematic content and removing personal data which should not be present

    Cases relating to GDPR rights 

    These are typically cases relating to requests to remove data published on the site as per the rights afforded under GDPR, the UK’s General Data Protection Regulations.

    Right type Total number of cases*
    GDPR Right to Erasure 214
    Data breaches by third parties 79
    GDPR Right to Rectification 15
    GDPR Right of Access 21
    Data breach – internal** 6
    GDPR Right to Object <5
    Total 340

    * Not all issues raised resulted in material being removed from the site.

    * “Data Breach – internal” refers to cases where WhatDoTheyKnow has identified that a data breach may have been caused due to our own staff actions. We take our obligations seriously, and use such instances as a learning opportunity, so these are recorded by us even if very minor, and often when they’re nothing more than a near miss.

    High risk concerns escalated for review 

    Our policies ensure that certain issues can be escalated for review by the wider team and, where more complex, by a review panel that includes mySociety’s Chief Executive. Escalation is typically prompted by threats of legal action, complaints, notifications of serious data breaches, potential defamation concerns, safeguarding, complex GDPR cases, or cases that raise significant policy questions.

    Case type* Total number
    Defamation 49
    Data breach 40
    GDPR Right to Erasure 33
    Complaints 19
    Safeguarding / Public harm 13
    Takedown 13
    GDPR Right of Access 9
    Police user data requests 7
    Site misuse 7
    Data breach – internal 5
    Other 39

    * Email threads may be either automatically categorised by the system, or manually categorised by the WhatDoTheyKnow admin team on the basis of the information given by the person reporting them. Some cases can relate to two types: for example a GDPR Right to Erasure request may also be a complaint. For the purposes of this table, such instances have been included in the counts for both concerns.

    Users

    User accounts Total 
    WhatDoTheyKnow users with activated accounts 239,540
    New user accounts activated in 2022 16,217
     
    Reason for banning users in 2022 Total 
    Spam 2,160
    Other site misuse 300
    Total number of users banned in 2022 2,460
     
    Anonymisation* Total 
    Accounts anonymised in 2022 139

    * Accounts are anonymised at the user’s request, generally to comply with GDPR Right to Erasure requests.

    Users are banned and their accounts may be closed due to site misuse and breach of the House Rules. Anonymised and banned users are no longer able to make requests or use their accounts.

    User data requests

    The table below shows the number of requests that we received from third parties for the personal data that we hold on our users in 2022. Details of which types of data we hold can be found in our privacy policy. As stated in our privacy policy, we do not provide this information to anyone else unless we are obliged to by law, or the user asks us to.

    Type of request Total 
    Police/law enforcement requests for user data 7
    Other requests for user data 6

     

    Material released Total 
    Number of requests, where court orders were produced and we provided the material as required 2

     

    Thank you for reading

    We produce this report as we demand transparency from public authorities and it’s only right that we also practise it ourselves. 

    Additionally, we hope that the report goes some way to showing the type of work the team do behind the scenes, and that running a well-used site like WhatDoTheyKnow is not without challenges.

    If there are specific statistics that you’d like to see in subsequent Transparency reports, or you’d like to know more about any of those above, do drop the team a line

    If you’d like to help WhatDoTheyKnow keep up their good work, please consider volunteering or making a donation. Any help small or large is greatly appreciated.

    Image: Meriç Dağlı

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  2. WhatDoTheyKnow Transparency report

    In 2021 WhatDoTheyKnow users made 100,092 Freedom of Information requests.

    Those requests, and the responses they received, are public on the website for anyone to see. But what’s not quite so visible is the work the WhatDoTheyKnow team do behind the scenes — answering users’ questions, removing inappropriate content and keeping everything ticking over.

    Some of the team’s most difficult calls arise around the removal of information. WhatDoTheyKnow’s guiding principle is that it is a permanent, public archive of Freedom of Information requests and responses, open to all.

    For this reason, the default position is not to remove substantive public information requests and responses; however, we act quickly if problematic content is reported to us. And, to help everyone understand exactly what has been removed and why, where possible we record these details on the request page.

    This year, for the first time, we’re extending our efforts towards transparency even further, with this report in which we’ll summarise the information removal requests and actions taken during the last twelve months.

    To allow for a full 12 months of data, the date range used throughout this report is 1 November 2020 to 31 October 2021

    Headline facts and figures

    • 20,714,033 visitors to WhatDoTheyKnow.com this year
    • 22,847 new WhatDoTheyKnow user accounts this year, taking the total to 222,694
    • 7,971 total number of email threads in the support inbox in 2021
    • 822 requests hidden from WhatDoTheyKnow in 2021
      …in the context of 100,092 requests made in the year, and a total of 772,971 requests now published on the site
    • 196 Total number of published requests where we redacted some material in 2021
      …usually due to the inappropriate inclusion of personal information, or defamation.
    • 126 The number of users who created accounts this year banned
      …that’s just 0.06% of new users.
    • WhatDoTheyKnow is a project of mySociety run by a small team of staff and dedicated volunteers.

    And in more detail…

    Requests flagged for our attention

    The table below shows the reasons that requests were reported for admin attention this year. Note that we also receive many reports directly by email, so while not comprehensive, this is indicative.

    Reason for attention request Total number
    Contains personal information 143
    Not a valid request 108
    Vexatious 94
    Request for personal information 85
    Contains defamatory material 51
    Other 287
    Total 768

    Material removed from the site

    The following tables show where members of the support team have acted to remove or hide requests from WhatDoTheyKnow in the last year, and the reason why.

    There is a range of options available to moderators, from ‘hidden’ (the most extreme) to ‘discoverable with link’. This is in addition to the censor rules that are used to hide certain information within a request or response.

    Request visibility Total number
    Visible only to the request maker 805
    Discoverable only to those who have the link to the request 11
    Hidden 8
    Reason for removing from public view Total number
    Not a valid FOI request 701
    Vexatious use of FOI 29
    Other (reason not programmatically recorded*) 124

    *Current processes do not create an easily retrievable list of reasons beyond the two above, but we are hoping to improve our systems so future transparency reports can include a more detailed breakdown.

    Censor rules (programmatically hiding the problematic part/s of a request) Total number
    Number of censor rules applied 881
    Number of requests with censor rules applied 196 
    Number of requests with censor rules applied which are still publicly visible, but with problematic material hidden 188

    Data protection issues raised to the WhatDoTheyKnow user support inbox 

    The following data shows the number of email threads* received into the WhatDoTheyKnow user support inbox regarding the most common types of concern around information published on the site. Not all issues raised resulted in material being removed from the site.

    GDPR = UK General Data Protection Regulations
    DPA: Data Protection Act

    Label Total number of threads
    GDPR Right to Erasure 317
    Defamation  130
    Data breach 96
    GDPR & DPA concerns (type not specified) 42
    GDPR Right to Rectification 33
    GDPR Right of Access 21
    Harassment 17
    GDPR Right to Object 12
    Data breach – internal** 2
    Impersonation 1
    Total 674

    * Email threads may be either automatically categorised by the system, or manually categorised by the WhatDoTheyKnow support team on the basis of the information given by the person reporting them.

    ** “Data Breach – internal” refers to cases where WhatDoTheyKnow has identified that a data breach may have been caused due to our own staff actions. We take our obligations seriously, and use such instances as a learning opportunity, so these are reported even if very minor, and often when they’re nothing more than a near miss — which both of these cases were.

    High risk concerns raised for review 

    Our policies ensure that certain issues can be escalated for review by the wider team and, where more complex, by a review panel that includes mySociety’s Chief Executive and the Chair of the Trustees.  Escalation is typically prompted by threats of legal action, complaints, notifications of serious data breaches, complex GDPR cases, or cases that raise significant policy questions.

    Case type* Total number
    Defamation 66
    GDPR Right to Erasure 42
    Data breach 40
    Complaints 33
    GDPR & DPA concerns 11
    GDPR Right of Access 6
    Harassment 5
    Takedown 2
    GDPR Right to Object 2
    GDPR Right to Rectification 1
    Other 78
    Total 286

    * Email threads may be either automatically categorised by the system, or manually categorised by the WhatDoTheyKnow support team on the basis of the information given by the person reporting them.

    Users

    User accounts Total 
    WhatDoTheyKnow users with activated accounts 222,694
    New user accounts activated in 2021 22,847
    Reason for banning users in 2021 Total 
    Spam 3,936
    Other site misuse 166
    Total number of users banned in 2021 4,102
    Anonymisation* Total 
    Accounts anonymised in 2021 170

    * Where accounts have been anonymised this is at the user’s request, generally to comply with GDPR Right to Erasure requests.

    Users are banned and their accounts may be closed due to site misuse and breach of the House Rules. Anonymised and banned users are no longer able to make requests or use their accounts.

    Thank you for reading

    This is the first time we’ve compiled a Transparency Report like this for WhatDoTheyKnow, but it’s something we’ve been wanting to do for some time. We demand transparency from public authorities and it’s only right that we also practice it ourselves. 

    Additionally, we hope that the report goes some way to showing the type of work the team do behind the scenes, and that moderating a well-used site like WhatDoTheyKnow is not without challenges.

    In future years, we hope to build on this initial report, ideally automating many of the stats so that they can be seen on a live dashboard. For now, we thought it was worthwhile making a manually-compiled proof of concept. 

    If there are specific statistics that you’d like to see in subsequent Transparency reports, or you’d like to know more about any of those above, do drop the team a line. They’ll get back to you as soon as the urgent moderation work is done!

    See mySociety’s 2021 annual review

    Image: Create & Bloom

  3. Two FOI requests seeking information about COVID

    Here at mySociety, before pressing ‘post’, we sometimes pass the wording of a tweet or blog entry past a couple of colleagues, just to make sure it strikes the right tone. 

    So when we saw emails from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Cabinet Office’s ‘Rapid Response unit’ going back and forth to get the wording of a tweet absolutely correct, we sympathised.

    “The quote would need to be shrunk down to fit, what should the main focus be?”

    “Have added some bits, not sure what the highlighted section was meant to be?”

    “[Redacted] wants us to delete the tweet for relationship management purposes and replace with the below.”

    “I’ll check at this end, but isn’t doing that just going to reignite?”

    “It could potentially reignite it, yes. But the Mail Online did not approach us for a comment and their headline is very misleading so feel we should rebut with less confrontational language.”

    “But you can’t replace a tweet? You can only delete and then go back on the original article with a new comment, so you’re rebutting twice, only the second time around admitting that you went too hard first time? Which just creates another story. Isn’t it better to just leave it?”

    Admittedly the DHSC’s predicament was higher stakes than ours generally is — they were responding to a piece in the Mail Online and tackling disinformation about coronavirus statistics. The email that kicks off all this discussion reads:

    “Flagging growing engagement with a Daily Mail article claiming that Covid-19 statistics around fatalities and hospitalisation have been twisted to create fear among the public (6.6k interactions).

    “Although not very high engagement, the article has now been picked up by several high profile lockdown sceptics such as Simon Dolan and Adam Books.

    “Given these damaging claims could affect compliance, we recommend that the press office contact the Daily Mail to make them aware of the public health impact, and if possible, include a government line in the article.”

    For those who work in communications, and perhaps everyone else too, it is quite interesting to see the authority’s rebuttal process roll into action, with each statement requiring sign-off by a named person, presumably for accountability purposes (these names have, though, been redacted before release).

    Available thanks to FOI

    How did we come to see these internal memos? Because a WhatDoTheyKnow user requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. 

    We can’t know this user’s intent*: were they hoping to reveal evidence that there is indeed a governmental coverup over lockdown, or perhaps to argue the case that there is none? Either way, it seems pretty clear from the released email threads that if there is a conspiracy at play, the staff frantically scrambling to get the right message out to the public don’t know about it.

    This request is also notable because the user, spotting that the authority had not provided everything they had asked for, requested an internal review, as is anyone’s right if they believe their FOI request has not been handled correctly.

    To DHSC’s credit, they did go on to provide the missing data, and also went out of their way to give some background information “outside of the scope of the FOI Act, and on a discretionary basis”.

    It’s worth noting that, for all the effort put in by DHSC’s communications team, however, Mail Online does not appear to have amended the article.

    FOI as fact-checker

    As we’re in the midst of a fast-changing pandemic situation, it’s perhaps inevitable that there’s lots of misinformation and confusion flying around at the moment — and thanks to social media, it spreads fast.

    Freedom of Information requests can play one small part in countering ‘fake news’, by bringing background information into the public domain, helping us understand the full picture a bit better.

    Is it always useful for such data to be public? That’s a matter for debate, and a question that is baked into the ICO’s FOI guidance for authorities.

    We’ve been doing some in-depth work around exemptions recently, so it is interesting to see COVID-related requests like this one about ill-effects of vaccines in the light of Section 22 exemptions, which cover ‘information intended for future publication and research information’. We suspect a Section 22 exemption may be applied here.

    That request is for Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) data, and includes the instruction, ‘This information should be made available now as raw data, not held back to be accompanied by any analysis.’ 

    Would that be desirable, or is the release of raw data just opening the door wide for potential misinterpretation and the drawing of erroneous conclusions? 

    When applying a Section 22 exemption, the ICO says that the authority must perform a public interest test to assess whether there is more public good in releasing the requested information than there would be in withholding it. 

    Their guidance specifically notes that “In most instances public authorities will not be able to argue that information is too technical, complex or misleading to disclose, or that it may be misunderstood or is incomplete, because they can explain it or set it into context.”

    And so, the ideal scenario is that the data is released, with robust explanations and in a way that can be understood by all. That would be a great outcome made possible by FOI**.

    * UPDATE: The request-maker has now added an annotation which explains their intent.

    ** UPDATE: Vaccine adverse reaction data is available, with context, on the GOV.uk website.

    Image: Garry Butterfield

  4. Explore FOI Information

    How many Freedom of Information requests are sent through WhatDoTheyKnow as compared to those made directly to public bodies? Our new mini-site lets you explore Cabinet Office statistics in comparison to numbers from WhatDoTheyKnow.

    Every quarter, the Cabinet Office releases Freedom of Information stats for a collection of central government ministries, departments and agencies. This provides a good benchmark for understanding how requests made from WhatDoTheyKnow relate to requests made through other routes. Back in 2010 we ran several blog posts about this, though we haven’t released any comparisons in recent years — and we’re now making up for lost time.

    In 2016, WhatDoTheyKnow was the source of 17.14% of requests to audited public bodies. On the other hand, most WhatDoTheyKnow requests (88.51%) went to public bodies that the Cabinet Office figures don’t cover.

    One interesting conclusion from this is that most FOI activity in the UK is not immediately visible from the official statistics. You can read more about what we learned from the numbers, or explore the data for yourself on the mini-site.


    Image: Jerry Kiesewetter (Unsplash)

  5. They’re back, and they’re bad: WriteToThem responsiveness stats

    If you’ve used WriteToThem, you’ll know that two weeks after you submit a message to your MP, we send a follow-up questionnaire to check whether you received a response.

    Each year, we collate that data to see how MPs are doing at responding to constituents’ mails*, and we publish the results. (This year, we waited a bit longer than usual so that we could cover a full year since the general election.)

    They’re now live, so you can go and check exactly how your own MP did — just enter your postcode.

    Some interesting stats

    • Because we’ve been running these figures since 2005 (with a gap between 2008-13), we can make some comparisons. We’re disappointed to see that the responsiveness rate of MPs has been steadily declining. In 2005, 63% of respondents indicated that they’d had a reply; this year, that’s down to 50%.
    • Before we analysed the data, we thought that new MPs, elected in 2015, would perhaps perform better than the jaded incumbents. Not so: on average ‘old’ MPs responded to 53.07% of constituents’ messages, while the newly-elected managed only 46.10%. One new MP, Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil, came in at 635 out of the 642 MPs eligible for inclusion.
    • Receiving more mail doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll perform poorly. Notable in this respect is Gerald Kaufman, who managed a 79% responsiveness rate despite having the second largest postbag.
    • And being in the public eye doesn’t necessarily impact an MP’s responsiveness: Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn performed poorly, but have done so in prior years, too. Equally, we suppose it follows that a poor responsiveness level doesn’t necessarily impact on electoral success.
    • We were curious to know whether there’s a gender divide when it comes to responsiveness. There is, but it’s very slight: on average male MPs responded to 52% of correspondence; female MPs to 50%.
    • And another thing we’ve been asked about, sometimes by MPs themselves. There is no significant relationship between parliamentary constituency size and responsiveness. In other words, having more people in a constituency does not automatically mean that the MP is a poor responder.

    Anyway, enough of this — go and check how your MP did, and then tell everyone else to do the same.

    *This needs a caveat. Our data only covers messages sent via WriteToThem, and, furthermore, only those messages where users completed the questionnaire. You can see the full methodology on the rankings page.

  6. Stats, technology and at least one really bad joke about tapirs: the mySociety year in review

    If you’re wondering what a year in Civic Tech looks like, well, here’s the answer:
    plenty of coding, video calls with partners around the world, the occasional conference, and tea. Lots of tea.

    Oh, and then there’s the annual treat of posing for the team photo on a windy winter’s day. That’s us, above. Damp. Cold. Still believing in the transformative power of digital technologies.

    We bundled it all together, with plenty of stats, a couple of jokes, and tweets from some of our happy users.

    Here’s the result. Sit back and enjoy the mySociety Year in Review, 2015.

     

    Read the 2015 mySociety Annual Report

  7. Boom times for FixMyStreet

    Each of the previous three months has been a record-breaker for FixMyStreet. In January, you made the highest number of reports in the site’s history… until February. And then that record was smashed again in March with over 17,000 reports across the month.

    FixMyStreet has been running since 2007, and it’s enjoyed increasing usage over that time, as you’d expect any site to do organically. The performance in the last few months, though—a 30% rise from the year before—has been notable. We reckon it’s been driven by a couple of factors.

    Grassroots outreach

    At mySociety, we tend not to go for big advertising campaigns (read: we can’t afford them), but you might have noticed that we put quite a bit of effort into spreading the word about FixMyStreet at the beginning of the year.

    Everything we did was low-cost and designed to help us promote the site to as many new people as possible:

    • We offered a number of downloadable posters and other promotional materials (if you haven’t seen these yet, go and take a look; we think they’re pretty nice)
    • We sent our users a stack of branded postcards that they could share with others to let them know about FixMyStreet
    • We also contacted a large number of community newsletters and magazines, serving towns, parishes and villages across the country: perhaps you saw us featured in your local publication.

    Users from council sites

    That all paid off, but there was another source of reports helping us achieve our record figures.

    That source was our client councils, who have FixMyStreet as the primary fault-reporting system on their own sites.

    Eight UK councils currently have FixMyStreet installed, with every report made on via the system on the council site being published on fixmystreet.com, and vice versa.

    Between them they’ve added just over 16,500 reports this year.

    Riding the wave

    So far this year, we’ve seen an overall average of 16,000+ reports per month, and there have been over 50,000 reports since 2015 began.

    Now, let’s hope all those reports get some kind of a response, because as the recent research we collaborated on showed, getting something fixed has the power to turn first-time reporters into conscientious, engaged repeat reporters. And that’s all for the good.

     

    Image: Jamie Taylor (CC)

  8. How responsive was your MP in 2014?

    This post refers to the statistics we published for 2014. If you would like to see the latest responsiveness figures on WriteToThem, please visit www.writetothem.com/stats/.

    Of course, there are many factors that you’ll consider before you cast your vote in the general election. But we think that one important quality in an MP is that they respond to their constituents.

    So you may wish to check your own MP’s performance on the latest WriteToThem responsiveness league table. Just put in your postcode and you can see how they did in 2014.

    Where the data comes from

    When you send a message to your MP using our site WriteToThem, you’ll receive an automated email two weeks later, asking whether or not you received a response. Every year, we take the data from these surveys and use it to assemble our responsiveness rankings.

    A downturn

    You might think that MPs would be doing the best they can this year, in the run-up to the election. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case: overall, responsiveness has fallen a percentage point since last year, with 46% of emails receiving no reply.

    Some caveats

    You can find all our data and methodology on the league table page.

    We know that messages sent to WriteToThem may not reflect all messages sent to an MP; we also know that not every message will require an answer. However, we think that, taken overall, our sample size of over 36,000 interactions can be seen as indicative.

    Image: Michael Scott (CC)

  9. Vikings, One Direction and Phillip Schofield: mySociety in 2014

    Year in reviewAnnual reports: they’re dry, boring and full of corporate buzzwords, right?

    That’s not really the mySociety way, though.

    All the same, we wanted to share some facts and figures about everything we got up to last year. It’s in the nature of our work that people tend to know about one part of it—say, our international work, or the sites we run here in the UK—but nothing else.

    Well, to give you a more rounded picture, here is the mySociety annual report, featuring, among other things, the pop group One Direction, some vikings, and the TV presenter Phillip Schofield.

    Welcome to mySociety in 2014… and if you enjoy it, please do share it around!

  10. WhatDoTheyKnow’s Share of Central Government FOI Requests – Q2 2011

    The Ministry of Justice have just published their latest quarterly statistics on the handling of Freedom of Information requests by central government bodies.  We’ve crunched the numbers to compare them to the requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow.com

    The graph shows our share of FOI requests sent to central Departments of State jumped to 14.6% in the 1st quarter of 2011.

    This time round, the top 3 departments were:

    1. Home Office (which includes the UK Border Agency, CRB & Identity & Passport Service) – 254 requests out of 866 – 29%
    2. Department for Education – 81 requests out of 328 – 25%
    3. Department for Communities and Local Government – 59 requests out of 250 – 24%

    Many of the WhatDoTheyKnow users contacting the Home Office & UK Border Agency are trying to find out information about their own immigration case.  We regularly receive emails from applicants asking for help, as they have often been waiting months (or even years in some cases) for an official update to their case, often with the UKBA holding on to identity documents or passport.  Applicants then feel they have to resort to making FOI requests. Many of these are auto-replied by this standard FAQ, and applicants don’t receive a personal answer.  The large 29% share of all Home Office requests suggests that the normal contact methods to keep people updated aren’t working or even that their service is simply struggling with demand.  It’s also likely that they don’t consider these types of requests as formal FOI requests, so it is worth noting that we are likely to be slightly overstating the percentage share figures.

    Free schools were a popular topic for the Department of Education – 9 out of 81 requests were on this subject, and nearly all were refused on the basis that information would be published at some unspecified date in the future.

    To understand the limitations of the data analysis, please see here.

    One interesting trend that has been consistently seen is that FOI requests are more frequent in odd-numbered quarters compared to even ones – if you have any ideas why this may be the case, please add them to the comments!

    To
    – Communities and Local Government