Three councils have been criticised for failing to respond to requests from the public for personal information.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken action against the London boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, and Lambeth who have failed to respond to the public when asked for personal information held about them, known as a Subject Access Request (SAR).
A SAR must be responded to within one to three months but an investigation by the ICO found that the councils repeatedly failed to meet this legal deadline.
The failure to meet the deadline resulted in regulatory action including reprimands as well as practice recommendations issued under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Information commissioner John Edwards said: ‘SARs and requests made under FOIA are fundamental rights and are an essential gateway to accessing other rights. Being able to ask an organisation “what information do you hold on me?” and “how it is being used?” provides transparency and accountability and allows the person to ask for changes to be made or even for the information to be deleted.’
