Ealing Council is to show a Freedom of Information (FOI) request log on its web site by the end of this year after previously saying it would be ready by the end of 2023.
The move follows an ongoing challenge from Ealing Liberal Democrats to release the log which will enable residents to search for and see previous FOI requests made to the council.
While disclosure logs are not mandatory to provide, it is considered good practice to offer them and allow members of the public to search for FOI requests.
For over a year, Ealing Liberal Democrats have pushed for Labour-run Ealing Council to allow residents to be able to view previous FOI requests that have been submitted and answered.
Councils including Harrow, Barnet, Bexley and Tower Hamlets as well as the Greater London Authority produce a log that shows and details previous FOI requests made.
At a full council meeting on Tuesday (23 July 2024), Ealing Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Gary Malcolm asked when it would be made available as the council previously said it would be released by the end of 2023.
Councillor Malcolm said: “Could the portfolio holder please outline why a year with no progress since this Labour administration commitment to publish an online Freedom of Information log on 13th June 2023 Council following the Liberal Democrat motion on this topic?”
In a response cabinet member for inclusive economy, Councillor Steve Donnelly said: “We are committed to publish a Freedom of Information log that is accessible to all. But this is no small undertaking. Our information governance department been working very hard in conjunction with the ICT team to complete advanced testing of a new system using artificial intelligence. This will enable a wide range of redacted answers to previous freedom of information inquiries to be searched.
“Initially, this will be used internally to ensure proper GDPR compliance before being rolled out to the public. This will then provide an accessible system rather than a simple list, which would have been unmanageably large given the number of freedom of information requests that we receive these days, some from far afield, some from closer to home, and it would have made it hard to access information that residents rightly want to be able to see.
“We expect to have this complex exercise completed and to publish the log by the end of this calendar year.”
Following the council meeting, Councillor Malcom said: “Liberal Democrats have demanded this action from Labour for over a year, but we are sad that it has taken over a year to agree to make public this information in a more user-friendly way.”
He added: “We believe that many changes to the council’s website that effect users and residents often fail to live up to the hype, so we believe there should be feedback from some residents to check it will do what they say it will.”
 request log on its web site by the end of this year after previously saying it would be ready by the end of 2023.){kind=link}