Ealing Council is set to follow other councils and show a Freedom of Information (FOI) request log on its web site but has not committed to a date by when it will be offered to residents.
The move follows a challenge from Ealing Liberal Democrats which revealed that Labour-run Ealing Council is falling behind other councils including Harrow, Barnet, Bexley and Tower Hamlets. These London councils as well as others across the country have a log that shows and details previous FOI requests made.
Disclosure logs are not mandatory to provide but it is considered good practice to offer it and many local and central government departments have them for members of the public to access online.
At a full council meeting on 13 June 2023, Ealing Liberal Democrat Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of the opposition challenged the ruling Labour party in a motion and asked the council to provide a Freedom of Information log for Ealing residents within three months.
In a response to the motion Councillor Malcolm made which was seconded by Councillor Andrew Steed, the council made an amendment without committing to a time scale. It said: “Implementing a Freedom of Information disclosure log. Ealing Council notes that several London local authorities including Harrow, Barnet, Bexley and Tower Hamlets all have Freedom of Information disclosure logs. Ealing Council reiterates it’s commitment to being ‘Open Transparent and inclusive’, and will continue to explore options to better allow residents to access information about their council, including potentially introducing its own Freedom of Information disclosure log.”
EALING.NEWS spoke to Ealing Council to find out more about its plans to implement a Freedom of Information log. A council spokesperson said: “As part of a project to review and upgrade the council’s website we are moving to publish FOI responses online later in the year.”
We also asked the council how many years back will the log show requests from. Some councils such as Harrow go back as far as 2011 with its log, while the Greater London Authority goes back to 2015. An Ealing Council spokesperson said no decisions have been made yet: “That’s to be decided as part of the project work.”
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