Frustrations aired over FoI request responses

Dear Editor

I wonder if your readers have relatable or sharable experiences in applying for Freedom of Information (FoI) requests?

I have made a number of these now I am involved with Crieff Community Council.

There seems to be a clandestine system of response protocols from various organisations when these requests have been made.

Invariably, you are abruptly informed that the information you request is in the public domain already, even though you have shown due diligence and tried to appropriate the info you require from the relevant people.

Then you are directed to a third party or subsidiary website, with a levy of £60 or thereabouts to be decanted from your bank account.

I will admit that naïvety on my part may have prompted me to assume that this venture would be free, perhaps as the word “free” is in the title.

Democracy and capitalism making good bedfellows here, I suggest?

Mark Hunter, by email