FOI watchdog wants more staff
Posted by
Martin Stabe
on 13 February 2006 at 14:55
Tags: Freedom of Information
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has signalled in a BBC interview that he would like the government to increase the budget for his office, which handles appeals under the Freedom of Information Act.
The ICO has been criticised by journalists for allowing a backlog of around 1,300 unresolved FOI appeals to accumulate, and Thomas is set to appear before the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee to answer MPs’ questions about this on 14 March.
“I am talking to the Department of Constitutional Affairs about increasing our resources. Obviously we’ve got to make best possible use of our existing resources but we have not got a huge amount — 29 case handlers,â€? Thomas told the BBC’s Ollie Stone-Lee.
Tags: Freedom of Information
