Fears over Hackney council's transparency after watchdog highlights FOI problems

A London council has been criticised by a Government watchdog for "serious shortcomings" in its transparency and openness.

Hackney council was told to improve the way it deals with requests under the Freedom of Information Act after consistently failing to meet statutory targets.

It was one of three public authorities - alongside the Cabinet Office and the Crown Prosecution Service - to be selected for a monitoring period to check compliance with the Act.

The three authorities now have until the end of the March to "show signs of improvement" to prevent further action from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), an independent watchdog aimed at make sure authorities comply with the FOI Act.

Hackney was criticised by the office after it was the subject of a "significant number of complaints" over the council's failure to meet deadlines set by the act.

Commissioner Christopher Graham said: "Responding to FOI requests within the statutory time limit of 20 working days is basic to delivering transparent and open government.

"While extensions may sometimes be justifiable for particularly complex requests, these three authorities have been selected for monitoring after serious shortcomings were identified in the time each of them has been taking to respond to FOI requests."

Hackney said it was confident the situation would improve by the end of the designated monitoring period.

Director of finance and resources Ian Williams said: "We are aware of delays in responding to FOI requests and launched our own review of the service in November 2013.

"New measures have since been put in place which will enable us to process requests in a more timely manner."