A council is looking at charging journalists for Freedom of Information requests despite a similar request being thrown out by the government last year.
Pendle Council in Lancashire says it wants to claw back £77,000 by increasing rates across a number of council services including an increase in fees for building control work.
A report by the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that the council wants to review charges for complex FoI requests following an increase in the number that the authority received in the past year.
When the act was first introduced Pendle Council dealt with around 70 per year. Last year 320 requests were lodged and the first six months of the current council year has seen 219 requests put in.
Current legislation means answering FoI requests cannot be charged for unless it would cost more than £450-worth of staff time.
When contacted by the newspaper the council said its priority was to protect the services that matter most to residents.
Dean Langton, the council’s finance head told the Telegraph: “Like every other council in the country, we’re always looking at ways to achieve a balanced budget while maintaining our services.”
Local government secretary Eric Pickles squashed a previous attempt to enable councils to charge newspapers for FoI requests after the issue was highlighted on HTFP.
It followed a story about Hampshire County Council wanting to change the law so that local authorities could charge organisations that may benefit commercially from receiving the information.
The council wanted the Local Government Association to take up its cause with ministers, claiming it spent £346,000 answering FoI requests during 2009-10.
But Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, called the plans ‘ludicrous’ and Mr Pickles said that if councillors and council officers are to be held to account, the press and public need access to the information that will enable them to do it
Other councils, including Chester and Cheshire West, have also tried to introduce charges in the past.
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With Lewisham council in London, I waited more than 80 days for a FOI response. Then it came back incomplete. The system is ridiculous and flawed. FOIs unfortunately don’t work a lot of the time.
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The system needs reviewing from top to bottom.
The number of FOIs answered late or insufficiently by far outweighs successful requests, and the abuse of the ‘reasonable cost allowance’ exemption is bordering on criminal.
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Still waiting for an FOI from Thames Valley asked for in June… But from my experience most press officers say ‘put in an FOI’ if they can’t be bothered to look for certain information or want to delay a story. If there is going to be a charge then its another avenue for press offices to refuse to give out information we should be allowed to see.
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