Department for Work and Pensions

Section 48 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) empowers the information Commissioner (the Commissioner) to issue a practice recommendation where it appears to him that a public authority has failed to conform, specifically, to the FOIA Codes of Practice. These failures are addressed in the recommendations section of the practice recommendation. Section 47 of FOIA also makes clear that the Commissioner has a duty to promote the following of good practice beyond just the requirements of the Codes of Practice. The wider concerns the Commissioner has in this case are addressed in the “Other matters” section of the practice recommendation to keep them distinct from the Section 48 related recommendations he has made.

In respect of the FOIA cases submitted to the Commissioner for a decision, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has had a consistently poor level of performance in terms of its request handling, specifically in relation to determining whether information is held and the conduct of internal reviews. This has been highlighted in those cases where it has been necessary for the Commissioner to intervene in order to ensure DWP’s compliance with FOIA. Following engagement by his staff with DWP about the underlying reasons for these failings, the Commissioner has reached the view that DWP’s request handling practices do not conform to parts 1, 5 and 10 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code).