A new low for government transparency
2023 was the worst year on record for responding to Freedom of Information requests. "Deeply concerning," says Lib Dem MP Layla Moran.
Opposition MPs have accused the government of attempting to “cover up” their failures as transparency plunges to the lowest level since records began.
Whitehall departments and government agencies granted just 34% of “resolvable” Freedom of Information requests in full last year, according to new data from the Cabinet Office.
The 2023 FOI annual bulletin, published this week, admitted this was “the lowest figure since monitoring began in 2005.”
FOI responses are down from 39% in 2022. This 5% fall in a single year equals the largest ever previous drop, recorded in 2014.
Michael Gove’s Department for Housing and Levelling Up and the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs were last year’s most secretive government departments. They both granted just 19% of requests while fully withholding 57% and 58% of requests, respectively, and giving partial responses in the remaining cases.
The Cabinet Office — which is responsible for making FOI policy across government — was also one of the worst performing government departments. In 2023, it granted less than a quarter of requests and withheld more than half, making it the third most secretive department.
The Cabinet Office previously hit the headlines after we (alongside the peerless Jenna Corderoy) revealed it was running a secretive ‘Orwellian’ Clearing House unit that monitored journalists’ FOI requests. Gove initially dismissed the reporting as “ridiculous and tendentious” - but the Clearing House was ultimately shut down after two separate inquiries.
Delays
Last year was also the worst on record for delays in responding to FOI requests.
Public bodies responded to just 75% of requests within the statutory limit of 20 working days – the lowest percentage in history – according to Cabinet Office data.
This newsletter often finds itself on the wrong end of this timeliness statistic. For example, in January, Democracy for Sale submitted FOI requests for details about the appointment of the former senior Fujitsu executive Simon Blagden as the chair of Building Digital UK (BDUK).
The request followed our story on BDUK’s award of £387m in public contracts to City Fibre Ltd – a former client of Blagden’s lobbying firm – while Blagden was in post. Blagden had also failed to publicly declare any interests until prompted to do so by this newsletter’s reporting.
Under FOI law, BDUK’s sponsor, the Department for Science, Industry and Technology should have responded to our request by February 15 but – 69 working days later – it has yet to do so.
Government secrecy
Government secrecy has steadily increased under the Conservatives. At the end of 2010, David Cameron’s first year in government, 57% of FOI requests were granted in full.
This figure has either declined or remained the same in 12 of the 13 years that the Tories have been in power.
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran told this newsletter that “it is deeply concerning that government departments are responding to fewer and fewer FOI requests. Openness is fundamental to the political health of a modern state. People have a right to know about the activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for them not to.
“I am especially concerned about DEFRA’s poor performance. The dumping of sewage into our rivers, lakes, and seas by water companies is an environmental scandal, and any information the department holds about this deeply damaging practice is certainly in the public interest.
“The government needs to get a grip on this worrying trend. It is through openness, transparency and accountability that we can hold the powerful to account.”
Labour’s Pat McFadden said: “When Rishi Sunak entered No.10, he promised integrity, accountability and professionalism at every level. According to the government's own figures, his premiership is now officially the least transparent we have seen in the last twenty-five years.
"During his time as Chancellor, we saw him desperately attempting to cover up the evidence of his incompetent management of the economy and his flagrant waste of public money. And now as Prime Minister, this report shows it is the failures of the whole government he is trying to hide."
Maurice Frankel, head of the Campaign for FOI, told this newsletter: “The fall in the number of requests answered in full is extremely worrying, particularly as the 2023 figure is not only markedly lower than the previous year but the lowest since the Act came into force.
“The continuing downward trend suggests that government departments, in particular, are becoming more resistant to disclosure, which may reflect an unwelcime culture at the top of departments.”
There has also been a worrying trend to politicise FOI responses. Democracy for Sale recently revealed the Cabinet Office’s failed attempt to bury bad news about Liz Truss’ £15,000 boozy in-flight bill by sending an FOI response to journalists at Politico on budget day before notifying the requester herself - who just happened to be Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry.
We also had to ask the Information Commissioner’s Office to launch an investigation into the Home Office’s refusal to disclose a review of the ‘golden visa’ policy used by sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
“The whole thing stinks of a cover up,” said Layla Moran, the Lib Dem MP said at the time. She’s not wrong.
The British public has a right to know enshrined in law. But we have a government that treats transparency as an optional extra.
That’s why Democracy for Sale is working to take more cases to put important information in the public domain. Can you help us?
A Government spokesperson said: "This Government is committed to transparency. Despite receiving more requests than ever before, we responded to the vast majority on time.
"We also proactively publish more information outside the Freedom of Information Act than ever before, amounting to thousands of documents each year.
"We have a responsibility and duty to balance the need to make information available while also protecting sensitive information and national security."