Request
- How many people currently work in your Freedom of Information team (or the team responsible for the management of Freedom of Information requests)?
- In the financial years 2019/20, 2022/23 and 2023/24:
a. How many FOI requests were logged by your organisation? If you differentiate between valid and invalid requests (e.g. where a request requires clarification or has been refused under section 8), please provide this breakdown.
b. What percentage of FOI requests were responded to within the statutory timeframe?
c. How many Internal Review (IR) requests were logged by your organisation?
d. What percentage of IRs were responded to within 20 working days?
e. What percentage of IRs were responded to between 21 and 40 working days?
f. What percentage of IRs were responded to after the 40th working day?
g. How many cases did you receive from the ICO where they investigated an FOI request under section 50 of the FOI Act? - Which team is responsible for updating and maintaining your publication scheme?
Outcome
Some information provided.
Response
We are unable to provide you with some of the information you have requested because it is covered by the exemption at sections 21 and 22 of the FOI Act.
Section 21 exempts information if it is reasonable accessible to the applicant by other means.
Section 22 exempts information intended for future publication.
For further information about why these exemptions have been applied, please see the explanatory annex at the end of this letter.
1. How many people currently work in your Freedom of Information team (or the team responsible for the management of Freedom of Information requests)?
The National Archives (TNA) has three teams that process Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. Combined, 32 members of staff work on these teams.
The Ministry of Defence Access Service Team has 16 members of staff.
The Freedom of Information Centre has 13 members of staff.
The Paid Search Team has 3 members of staff.
2. In the financial years 2019/20, 2022/23 and 2023/24
a. How many FOI requests were logged by your organisation? If you differentiate between valid and invalid requests (e.g. where a request requires clarification or has been refused under section 8), please provide this breakdown.
TNA does not hold a dataset of this information by financial year. This information is instead held in the format of calendar years and calendar quarters. Data on the quantity of valid FOI requests received by TNA is sent to the Cabinet Office, which publishes quarterly and annual figures across all centrally monitored bodies. This information is therefore exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act as information reasonable accessible by other means.
Datasets currently published by the Cabinet Office cover up until the end of the 2023 calendar year, and can be found by browsing the website below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics#2023
Data requested from 2024 is exempt under section 22 of the FOI Act. This information will be published in 2024 within the Cabinet Office’s quarterly reports.
TNA does not hold a dataset of invalid requests as these are not required as part of the Cabinet Office’s publication requirements. Invalid requests do not tend to be logged, and if logged by mistake they are typically cancelled once it has been determined they are invalid.
b. What percentage of FOI requests were responded to within the statutory timeframe?
Please see the response to 2a. Data requested from up until the end of the 2023 calendar year is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act.
Data requested from 2024 is exempt under section 22 of the FOI Act. This information will be published in 2024 within the Cabinet Office’s quarterly reports.
c. How many Internal Review (IR) requests were logged by your organisation?
d. What percentage of IRs were responded to within 20 working days?
e. What percentage of IRs were responded to between 21 and 40 working days?
f. What percentage of IRs were responded to after the 40th working day?
Please see the response to 2a. Data requested from up until the end of the 2023 calendar year is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act. Please note, data on internal reviews is only published within the Cabinet Office’s annual statistics tables.
Data requested from 2024 is exempt under section 22 of the FOI Act. This information will be published in 2025 within the Cabinet Office’s 2024 annual tables.
g. How many cases did you receive from the ICO where they investigated an FOI request under section 50 of the FOI Act?
Please see the response to 2a. Data requested from up until the end of the 2023 calendar year is exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act. Please note, data on section 50 cases (requests that were the subject of a complaint to the Information Commissioner) is only published within the Cabinet Office’s annual statistics tables.
Data requested from 2024 is exempt under section 22 of the FOI Act. This information will be published in 2025 within the Cabinet Office’s 2024 annual tables.
3. Which team is responsible for updating and maintaining your publication scheme?
A wide range of business areas across TNA provide information that forms our publication scheme; overall responsibility for maintaining the scheme sits within the Information Rights Department and the Freedom of Information Centre. Please see our current publication scheme webpage.
Explanatory annexe
Exemptions applied
Section 21: Information readily available to the applicant by other means
Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) does not oblige a public authority to provide information if it is already reasonably accessible by other means.
In this case the exemption applies because relevant information is already published by the Cabinet Office.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics
Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found at: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1203/information-reasonably-accessible-to-the-applicant-by-other-means-sec21.pdf
Section 22: Information intended for future publication
Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) exempts from release information intended for future publication if (a) the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not), or (b) the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and or (c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
Section 22 is a qualified exemption, and we are required to conduct a public interest test when applying any qualified exemption. This means that after it has been decided that the exemption is engaged, the public interest in releasing the information must be considered. If the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in withholding it then the exemption does not apply and the information must be released. In the FOIA there is a presumption that information should be released unless there are compelling reasons to withhold it
We have considered whether it would be in the public interest for us to provide you with the information ahead of publication, despite the exemption being applicable. Please find below the reasoning for and against disclosure.
Arguments in favour of disclosure:
Disclosure of the requested information would demonstrate The National Archives’ commitment to being a transparent and accountable organisation and would increase public awareness of the work of the archives sector.
Releasing information at the current time would allow for contemporary discussion on FOI compliance at The National Archives and would consequently enable and enrich public debate.
Arguments against disclosure:
There are public interest arguments against disclosure of this information at the present time. These arguments include that it is in the public interest to adhere to the existing publication process for FOI compliance statistics, which includes time for the information to be gathered and properly verified before being placed in the public domain.
It is also in the public interest to ensure that the information is available to all members of the public at the same time, and premature publication could undermine the principle of making the information available to all at the same time through the official publication process.
FOI compliance data covering the 2023-4 financial year will be published during 2024 as part of the quarter 1 (January to March) and quarter 2 (April to June) statistics published by the Cabinet Office.
On this occasion, we have concluded that the balance of the public interest test falls in favour of withholding this information.
Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found at:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1172/information-intended-for-future-publication-and-research-information-sections-22-and-22a-foi.pdf