The London Borough of Lewisham has been served with an Enforcement Notice as a result of the evidence seen by the Commissioner about its performance in relation to its statutory duties under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA). Specifically:
- At the end of 2022, the total number of overdue requests was 338, 221 of which were over 12 months old. The oldest unanswered request was submitted to the Council on 3 December 2020; and
- The failure by the London Borough of Lewisham to provide sufficient mitigation for its performance in its response to our enquiries regarding this performance.
The Enforcement Notice requires the London Borough of Lewisham to provide responses to requests that are over 20 working days old and devise and publish an action plan to mitigate delays.