The UK’s data protection regulator has issued a formal reprimand to the south east force after its rate of compliance with Freedom of Information requirements has fallen to almost 50%

Surrey Police has been formally reprimanded over “a significant and worsening backlog” of Freedom of Information requests.

The Information Commissioner’s Office claims that the force currently has a compliance rate of just 54% in responding to FOI submissions within the required 20-day timeframe. This figure has declined by 15 percentage points in the past year and the oldest information request currently still awaiting response was filed two years ago, the regulator added.

The ICO has concluded that this represents “a serious departure from the standards expected of public bodies”.

The data watchdog added that “despite repeated requests for action, Surrey Police has not provided any concrete plan or strategy” to address its compliance issue – leading to the issuance of a formal censure.

Having been hit with the reprimand, the force has been given 30 days to provide an action plan – including “specific measures to address the backlog” – and further setting out how it will bring its FOI performance up to standard, both for outstanding and future requests. If the organisation does not do so, it could be held in contempt of court, the ICO warned.

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Phillip Angell, the watchdog’s head of freedom of information casework, said: “Timely responses to Freedom of Information requests are essential for maintaining transparency and trust in public bodies like police forces. The failure of Surrey Police to meet even the basic requirements of the Freedom of Information Act is entirely unacceptable. A worsening backlog, with requests as old as two years, shows a lack of seriousness about their obligations and a failure to prioritise transparency. This cannot continue: the public deserves better, and we have issued this enforcement notice to ensure that they get it.”

Responding to the reprimand, Surrey’s assistant chief constable Peter Gardner said: “We take our obligations in processing FOI requests seriously and fully accept that our service levels have fallen below expected standards. This year we had an exceptionally high turnover of staff within information management, resulting in a large proportion of the team being new in post. This has had an impact on our compliance rate – which we submit monthly to the ICO – and we are working to reduce this backlog as quickly as possible.”

He added: “We recognised that our service levels were not good enough and this was raised as a force risk in May and an action plan was put in place to address this. Whilst recruitment and training of new staff has been underway, priority was given to Rights of Access and Court Order requests which have continued to be processed within the statutory timeframes. The public absolutely have a right to transparency of information under FOI and we are working hard to ensure our performance in this area returns to the standards they expect from us.”