Freedom of Information requests bother KCC

Tony Blair described it as one of his biggest regrets and it seems there are some Conservatives who feel the same way. The former PM says introducing Freedom of Information legislation was one of his mistakes.

Not for the first time, county councillors have been expressing their own reservations about dealing with so many requests from pesky people like journalists. The burden of FOI on the county council was the subject of a debate recently after a report detailed how requests had doubled since the Act came in.

One Conservative said that lazy journalists were in part responsible because they made requests for information that was already available.

It’s worth pointing out that if the information sought is already available then the authority need not deal with the request.

You may think that Kent County Council has budget problems but it seems they are nothing as severe as those facing Northamptonshire County Council. There, the Conservative administration told the government that it has effectively run out of money.

Finance chiefs have issued what is known as a Section 114 notice, freezing any new expenditure other than on caring for vulnerable children.

KCC finance director Andy Wood told councillors this week, with what seemed some degree of satisfaction, that while the council faced challenges he definitely would not be going down the same path.

Jargon alert. It seems that no council these days can carry out any sort of monitoring without it being “robust”. KCC is a major culprit on this front and you would be hard-pressed to find any report mentioning monitoring that doesn’t also describe it as robust.

It does make you wonder what ordinary monitoring might involve, although maybe no such thing exists in the world of local government.

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