Local councils who fail to respond speedily enough to freedom of information requests have been named and shamed by a government watchdog.

Information commissioner Christopher Graham singled out Birmingham City Council alongside the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence for failing to improve their response times.

Negotiations are now under way over the “appropriate regulatory action” to be taken in a bid to speed up their processes.

Three months of monitoring by the Commissioner’s Office following concerns over response times found none of the three had managed to cut delays.

Another four councils – Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Wolverhampton and Westminster – have also been asked to sign undertakings to improve performance.

And although some other bodies originally placed under scrutiny had improved performance six – the Home Office, the Scotland Office, the Metropolitan Police, NHS North West, and the London Boroughs of Croydon and Newham – still gave rise to “some areas of concern”.

Mr Graham said: “I am delighted that over two-thirds of the authorities whose performance we have been monitoring have managed to overcome their problems.

“However, the remaining authorities have not done enough to convince us that they have a clear and credible plan for getting back on track. Over the next four weeks, we shall be discussing appropriate next steps with them.”

The Commissioner’s Office also published a list of 18 other bodies which will be subject to the next three-month monitoring process triggered by signs of poor performances.

They include local authorities in Surrey, Barnsley, Cornwall, Kent, Kirklees, Southwark, North East Lincolnshire, North Somerset, Nottingham, Kingston upon Thames and Waveney.