Some public bodies ‘over-reliant’ on legal advisers for FoI response

BOTH Cork City and Cork County councils, as well as local hospitals, the Health Service Executive (Southern Region), University College Cork (UCC), and Munster Technological University are among the public bodies cited in a new report by the information commissioner on their response to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests during 2023.

The commissioner’s report for 2023 details the number of FoI requests received by public bodies across the State.

In total, 37,437 FoI requests were made to public bodies during 2023. Of 665 requests to the commissioner to review FoI decisions made by the public bodies, there were eight each from Cork City Council and Cork County Council.

Cork City Council received 343 FoI requests during 2023, 113 of which related to personal matters, 226 pertained to non-personal matters, and a further six were ‘mixed’.

The figures for Cork County Council were: 89 FoI requests deemed to be personal in character, 179 non-personal, and three mixed.

Cork City Council was issued with four out of eight formal notices by the commissioner, after they had failed to supply him with the information needed to review the body’s decision on an FoI request.

In terms of health matters, HSE South received the highest number of FoI requests, numbering 4,833, the vast majority of which were deemed ‘personal’.

Two Cork hospitals featured on the list of voluntary hospitals, mental-health services, regulators, and related agencies that received FoI requests.

The South Infirmary/Victoria Hospital received 155 personal FoI requests and seven non-personal, while there were 86 personal and 15 non-personal FoI requests to the Mercy University Hospital. There was one ‘mixed’ FoI request.

There was no figure relating to Cork University Hospital, though there were 214 FoI requests to ‘other hospitals/services/agencies’.

Both UCC and MTU were featured on the list of educational institutions that had received FoI requests. According to the figures detailed in the commissioner’s report, UCC received 71 FoI requests, while MTU received 18 requests.

The commissioner, Ger Deering, criticised the “over-reliance on external legal advisers by a small number of public bodies when responding to requests for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act”.

Mr Deering highlighted a growing trend by a small number of public bodies to “contract out” their decision-making on FoI requests to external legal advisers and added that this trend was concerning, as it can result in the public not being given access to records to the “greatest extent possible” as provided for under the FoI Act.