Derby City Council faces regulator’s wrath over information failures

Derby City Council headquarters. Image by LDRS.

Derby City Council has been slapped by a regulator after it failed to meet statutory standards in releasing information to the public.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued enforcement action on the council following an investigation on the length of time it responded to the public for data.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities.

Access to information helps the public make authorities accountable.

Councils and other public bodies have a statutory duty to respond to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request within 20 working days from when it was submitted.

But the ICO has demanded action from the council after it was found there was “sustained failure to meet the statutory requirements”.

It was found that between January 1st 2026 and July 24th 2026, 226 FOI requests were completed on time – equating to just 29 per cent of the total number of requests sent.

90 requests were completed outside the statutory timeframe, representing 11 per cent and 463 were open and overdue, representing 59 per cent.

The ICO said it had “grave concerns about the exceptional level of systemic non-compliance demonstrated by the council’s performance”.

Derby City Council apologised for the delays and said they were caused by staffing issues and an increase in demand for information.

It comes after the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) received an FOI response from the council more than eight months after a request was submitted.

In December last year the LDRS requested information about the scale of roadworks across the city. Specifically, it asked how many roadwork incidents had taken place in each of Derby’s 18 wards over the last five years.

The council’s response – received on September 4th – said it did not hold the information requested.

The ICO has instructed the authority to deliver a root and branch action plan setting out measures to address problems and to respond to overdue requests.

A spokesperson for the city council said the authority had already begun to take action to rectify the problems before the notice was issued.

Their statement said: “We accept that our performance has fallen below the required standards and we apologise to those affected.

“This issue stems from a shortfall in capacity alongside rising demand and a growing backlog of requests. Prior to the ICO’s intervention, we had already identified these challenges and begun taking action to resolve them.

“A comprehensive Improvement Action Plan is now in place – we have secured extra resources to increase capacity, senior leadership is actively involved and tracking progress, and our governance and performance monitoring arrangements have been strengthened.

“Building on our past track record of strong performance, we are taking all necessary steps to restore performance and secure sustainable compliance moving forward.”