Waltham Forest Council is getting slower at answering Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, new figures show.
So far this year the council has answered 53% of FOI requests within the 20-day legal deadline. That's down from 67% last year and 86% in 2024/25.
Subject Access Requests (SARs), which people use to get hold of the personal information an organisation holds about them, are doing worse. Only a third have been completed within the one-month legal deadline. That compares with 49% before, and 46% between December 2024 and March 2025.
The council currently has 320 FOI requests and 217 SARs outstanding. Some of the delays are down to residents not confirming their identity.
The figures came out after Conservative councillor Jemma Hemsted raised the issue at a recent full council meeting.
Council leader Paul Perkins put the drop down to "rising demand and staffing capacity constraints, particularly within specialist FOI and SAR roles."
He said the council plans to strengthen management oversight, step up monitoring and improve how cases are allocated, and to launch a new performance dashboard by the end of October. In September the council filled a vacant SAR officer post to help clear the backlog.
Anyone can make an FOI request to the council for information it holds, and anyone can make a SAR for their own personal data. Both come with legal deadlines for a response.
